Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thought Labor members on the other side of the Chamber were making an interjection to correct me. They were actually reiterating the fact that all companies should pay tax. We're not disputing the fact that tax has to be paid; we're disputing the claim that taxing more will have a positive impact on wage growth. For the benefit of Hansard, those on the other side of the Chamber are shaking their heads. There is no rationale for, or logic in, the claim, which those opposite are clinging to, that Labor's measures will not have a negative impact on wage growth. I am flabbergasted—absolutely flabbergasted.

I stood up to speak about some of the good things that the government is doing, in particular in the Defence Force Parliamentary Program. Recently I had the great pleasure of being able to attend Exercise Talisman Sabre at Shoalwater Bay, which is a military exercise involving about 30,000 military personnel that took place 90 kilometres north of Rockhampton in Central Queensland. The exercise included American, Australian, Canadian, Japanese, French and New Zealand personnel. It was a remarkable logistical exercise that involved amphibious landings, ground operations and so on.

I think I mentioned to the Chamber previously the exciting spectacle when four C-17s flew over the site, the back of the aircraft opened and no fewer than 500 parachutists jumped out. I said to the commander on the ground, 'Are they enthusiastic to jump out of the plane? Do they need much encouragement?' and the commander said, 'They need no encouragement whatsoever. They've been on those aircraft for 44 hours. They left Alaska and it's been a direct flight. We were rehearsing our mid-air refuelling capabilities.' He reiterated the point that the 500 marines would be very enthusiastic to get off the plane as quickly as they could.

He also indicated to me that those soldiers would spend no less than 72 hours on the ground, only to be put back on the aircraft and sent back to Alaska. That talks about the capacity of our allied forces to come from one side of the world to the other in a very short amount of time. Being able to put trained deployed troops on the ground in any type of environment is evidence of every cent that we spend in our defence capacity. To our fully enlisted brave men and women who participated in that exercise, I say that, as a country, we are so proud of you. We are so proud of our reservists. Keep up the great work. Our country is proud of you.

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