Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 1 July this year, at the Australian Defence Force Academy, the Prime Minister gave a speech, the 2020 Defence Strategic Update. In it he outlined a 10-year plan—a funding model for the ADF which would give certainty in a changing strategic environment. A total of $575 billion will be committed to defence over the next 10 years, including $270 billion of new spending towards complex defence acquisitions. In that speech, the Prime Minister said that, post-pandemic, the world in which we live will be poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly, and that, as a sovereign country and a regional power in the Indo-Pacific, we are going to see increased geopolitical competition, we're going to see rapid military modernisation across the region and we're going to see more grey-zone tactics being employed.

In other words, we need to be prepared for a tough decade ahead, and the government's funding model provides certainty to the Australian Defence Force over the next 10 years. In fact, by 2021, we are going to increase our defence spending budget to two per cent of GDP. This is necessary in a changing world where our security and sovereignty can never be taken for granted. Critical to this shift in our defence posture will be a strong economic recovery post COVID-19. The 2021 budget advances the government's plan for Australia's economic recovery.

The first phase of the government's revised economic and fiscal strategy is the COVID-19 economic recovery plan. It helps get Australians back to work and boosts our prosperity as we emerge from this crisis. Critical to the plan is the JobMaker plan and the COVID-19 response package. This budget provides $74 billion in measures under the JobMaker plan to drive stronger economic recovery and to drive down the unemployment rate. It will help drive and boost private sector growth and job creation, recognising that a strong economy is critical to a strong sovereign Australia, with a strong Defence Force to safeguard our interests over the next decade.

There some key things in the JobMaker plan and the 2021 budget which will help get Australians back into jobs. We're spending $310 million on research and development and we're introducing a tax incentive to support Australia's economic recovery. We have the Modern Manufacturing Strategy. We talk a lot about defence sovereign industry. We need to increase our manufacturing base here in Australia. If we're going to be truly self-sufficient and sovereign, we need more manufacturing jobs in this country, and we're committing $79 million this coming year towards that. We have a research package. We've investing in new energy technologies. We have a digital business plan. We're helping out our agricultural exporters, which I know is important for you, Deputy Speaker, in your part of the world, improving their ease of doing business with markets, particularly in Asia. We're securing Australia's liquid fuel stocks. We're deregulating and, of course, we're funding a gas fired recovery. Gas is critical to delivering low-cost, reliable base-load power, not just for manufacturing but for hundreds of thousands of small and medium businesses across this great country of ours.

Importantly, procurement is a critical part of what we do as a government, and the COVID-19 situation has put a lot of pressure on small to medium businesses. The economy is an ecosystem, and one impact in one sector affects the whole thing. So some suppliers to government are struggling to meet their contractual obligations with agencies, and this in turn puts at risk their financial viability, their ability to retain staff and also their supply chains. I know the government has responded. The former Minister for Finance, Mathias Cormann, has done a lot in this space. We've engaged with industry stakeholders, represented on its procurement consultative roundtable, on matters directly affecting industry. But my question to the minister today is, because the finance portfolio is responsible for procurement policy, I have a question regarding the government's approach to paying its bills to suppliers as fast as possible. Can the minister representing the finance minister please advise what steps it has taken this year to lift its game in paying suppliers, including speeding up payments to small business suppliers?

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