Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde. I was pleased to be with him speaking to the Defence Force contractors at a subbie level in his own electorate that are supporting the LAND 400 project.

Today Standard & Poor's released their outlook and their rating for Australia and confirmed once again that Australia has retained its AAA credit rating. In that document it says something very important. It says that Australia's economy is beginning to recover. That's what it says. It also goes on to say that we are doing it from a position of fiscal strength.

As we came into the COVID-19 recession, we came into it from a position of fiscal strength because of the work done by our government over these many difficult years to bring the budget back to balance. That enabled us, at the time of crisis for the Australian government, to step in and support Australians, protect lives and protect livelihoods more so than we've ever seen in this country in response to a crisis before. And we could do that from a position of strength. It was that position of strength in our economic management which had already enabled us to move forward to ensure that Australia rebuilt our defence capability in this country with the biggest rebuild of our defence forces since the Second World War. Two per cent of the size of our economy was our commitment, and now it's a reality. In this budget, two per cent of Australia's economy will be spent on defence. It's a commitment that now represents a floor, under our government, for our commitment to defence expenditure—not a ceiling, a floor—and we can go forward. That is enabling Australia to keep Australians safe, to defend and protect our interests and to protect our sovereignty.

It's also an important part of the modern manufacturing plan that the minister for industry and the Minister for Defence Industry have been collaborating on. In this budget, a billion dollars of expenditure has been brought forward to be part of the economic recovery plan, both in workforce as well as in capability. I had the privilege to be there, up in Brisbane, to open the MILVEHCOE facility—some 450 jobs—which is responsible for building the Boxers. There are some 450 jobs, and $150 million already secured from that facility for exports to Hungary. This is one of the most advanced vehicle manufacturing plants for military purposes anywhere in the world, and that has occurred because our government had the commitment and had the vision and had the strength to go and invest in Australia's defence future. That's what our budget's doing. That's what you can do when you manage the economy well and put Australia in a position of strength so it can deal with the crisis and protect Australia's sovereign interests.

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