Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the military service that my colleagues, both on this side and the other, have provided to their country. It's an absolute pleasure to stand and speak on this motion of the member for Braddon's.

The last speaker, the member for Solomon, had a different slant. I want to congratulate him, by and large, for his views on this motion, as opposed to the previous speaker, the member for Burt, who is also the shadow defence industry minister. The member for Burt came into this place and started lecturing us about defence procurement. He is from a party that did not build one ship—not one ship. It's very interesting to see that just in the last week we celebrated with the defence minister the NUSHIP Sydney being delivered to the Royal Australian Navy. The Royal Australian Navy took possession of NUSHIP Sydney, the final three of the air warfare destroyers, which will no doubt serve this country terrifically in the years to come.

Returning to the motion at hand, this Rheinmetall project—which, as we all know, is being provided to Queensland to be built in Queensland—will provide jobs not just for Queensland. I'm pleased to see the member for Oxley in here. The military defence centre of excellence, where the vehicles will be built, is in his electorate. Good luck him and good luck to the people of Ipswich. I would've liked those jobs in Fisher, but, there you go. The member for Oxley will no doubt stand up here today and talk about how great this program is: jobs for the good people of Ipswich, jobs for the good people of South East Queensland and jobs for Australians. There are those opposite—I'm sure the member for Oxley won't be one of them—who stand in this place and say that the government only provides jobs for coalition members' electorates. Well, the member for Oxley will no doubt stand up here in a few short moments and talk about how wonderful this is for his electorate.

Mr Dick interjecting—

I take the interjection from the member for Oxley. He's already done it. I congratulate him for his honesty. It'd be great to see that sort of honesty replicated by all those opposite.

This is a $5 billion project, just in the initial build. Over its lifetime sustainment it's $15 billion of defence procurement that will ensure sovereign capability for Australia, because that's what this is all about. Through the 2016 Defence white paper, Mr Deputy Speaker Zimmerman, you would no doubt be aware that this government has seen a shift in defence industry procurement. No longer are we, as a government, prepared to just buy equipment off the shelf. We want to see Australians get good, meaningful, hi-tech jobs and there's no better way to do that than through defence industry procurement. This government, through that 2016 white paper, has announced $200 billion of defence industry local builds. Yes, there will be some products that are purchased overseas. We're not, at this stage in our country, able to build our own fighter aircraft, although we are providing domestic material that goes into that supply chain across the world. But we have made a very conscious decision to increase our Australian industry content. We will continue to do that. Land 400 phase 2 is a classic example of that. I congratulate the government on its Land 400 phase 3 project, which has just recently gone out. I know the minister is doing some terrific work in the community. If you're interested in small business, get in. Now is your chance to get into that next phase.

See this speech in context