Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Herbert for putting forward this motion so that members from both sides of the House have an opportunity to place on record our support for our Defence Force industries and small business in this country. I note the contributions from the member for Gilmore and, following me today, the member for Macquarie, who are both committed to ensuring that our defence capabilities continue to grow and that they are connected to small businesses right across this country. While we may not agree on most things with the government, you can be assured that, when it comes to supporting our Defence Forces and small businesses, both sides of the chamber are fully committed to ensuring both thrive.

I wanted to speak on this motion particularly today for a number of reasons. The first is that I come from a military family myself; my father served in World War II as a signalman aboard the HMAS Ararat in New Guinea. Whilst my dad didn't speak too often about his experiences in the Navy for many years after completing his services, in later years he told our family more and more about what his role had been and what he had seen, and that made me appreciate even more the great sacrifices our Defence Forces men and women make to serve our country, protect our values and keep us safe. I know from participating in the Australian parliamentary ADF program and from visiting our troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places just how important it is that this parliament recognises and continues to support our Defence Forces and the industry underpinning it.

We know that there is a tremendous amount of hard work and perseverance in making a small business a success. In my electorate—and there are 10,386 small businesses throughout the local Oxley community—many have strong links to the Defence Force. RAAF Base Amberley is on our doorstep in the electorate of Blair, and there's a whole range of Defence Force industries which are just starting to pick up the pace in the south-west of Brisbane. I've witnessed this firsthand when I've visited industrial workplaces throughout the local community, some of which have been supplying products and support to our defence forces for decades, and some of which are new to the field and are providing state-of-the-art technological advances so that our troops are some of the safest in the world.

I want to highlight to the chamber today that some of these small businesses are also part of important supply chains to larger defence companies, include Boeing Defence Australia, with the capability of improving small-business connectivity in the south-west of Brisbane. I recently had the opportunity to tour Boeing Defence Australia's new facility in Redbank, at their official opening, with the shadow minister for defence and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Richard Marles. This facility now plays an instrumental role in delivering Project Currawong, the Integrated - Battlefield Telecommunications Network, to the Army and Air Force. As part of this, Boeing will engage some 200 Australian businesses, many of which are Queensland based, for the production and supply of components and parts.

There is another project I want to highlight to the House. I'm a strong supporter of it and I know our local small business community continues to look forward to delivering it. Rheinmetall Defence Australia recently established its Australia-New Zealand headquarters and Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence, also in Redbank, in the electorate of Oxley. Rheinmetall was the successful tenderer for the Australian government's Land 400 phase 2 contract, which will deliver a program of continuous design, build and support for up to 5,000 military vehicles throughout Australia and the Asia-Pacific.

I commend the Queensland Palaszczuk government for its vision of a 10,000-person strong, $7 billion defence industry sector by 2028, driven by a newly released plan which underpins $15 million in industry development programs, led by the Premier and the minister for state development, the Hon. Cameron Dick. This plan, with a range of initiatives, could see the creation of 3½ thousand new jobs on top of the more than 6½ thousand people who are already employed in the defence force sector in Queensland. Our state is home to 27 per cent of Australian Defence Force personnel, with 14 significant defence facilities. These figures show the importance of the industry for our Queensland economy.

Finally I want to thank our dedicated men and women in the defence forces, who are the best in the world at what they do. I look forward to playing a constructive role in ensuring our small-business sector continues to support them.

See this speech in context