Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. As we heard this morning from Prime Minister Lee in his address to the parliament, Australia and Singapore share a long history of defence engagement, particularly through supporting the training of their military here in Australia. In May this year the Australian and Singaporean governments announced that Australia and Singapore will jointly develop military training areas and facilities at Townsville and at Shoalwater Bay, in North Queensland. Singapore will fully fund this redevelopment, spending $2.25 billion in North Queensland to develop those training facilities—around $1 billion at Shoalwater Bay training area and about $1 billion at the Townsville field training area and its environs.

Australia will also grant Singapore enhanced access for unilateral land training. From the current six weeks each year it will increase to 18 weeks each year, and training for Singaporean troops will increase from 6,600 up to 14,000—so more than doubling the current access Singapore military training to North Queensland.

This is really good news on many fronts. It is particularly good news for those members who represent North Queensland and Central Queensland electorates, like the member for Dawson, the member for Capricornia, the member for Leichhardt, and other members in North Queensland. It will create jobs and it will create growth in that part of Queensland, an area that is suffering more than many other parts of Australia, because of the mining boom going from the construction phase to the extraction phase. So, for the small businesses, the medium enterprises and the people looking for work in North Queensland, this is particularly good news. It is also a vital investment in military infrastructure, building our defence capability and working with our Singaporean allies to do just that. So it also ticks the box of increasing our defence capability, and it will strengthen the Singaporean Defence Force, through the military training here in Australia, strengthening a key ally of Australia in our local region.

Finally, of course, it further cements and binds together the Singaporean and Australian relationship, whether that be a defence relationship, foreign policy or an economic relationship. As we heard from Prime Minister Lee this morning it is one of Singapore's and Australia's most important and enduring partnerships, so it further binds us together with one of our key allies in the region, which can only lead to more stability and more peace in the region in which we live.

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