Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question and for her strong support of the Australian Defence Force. We have made a massive investment into our Defence men and women and we will continue to do so, because not only do we want to keep Australians safe but we want to keep people safe and protected in our own region. We know that the Indo-Pacific is in the midst of the most consequential strategic realignment since the Second World War, and Australia stands very firmly with our partners in this region. We want to make sure that we have a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Australia will never, ever compromise on our values, and our partners know that. We will continue to work very closely with family, as the Prime Minister often describes our near neighbours. We want to make sure that we can provide support to them, not only in the response to COVID but also in making sure that over the coming years and decades we can work very closely with those partners to secure our region.

The defence minister, Minister Reynolds, recently met with her counterparts from Japan, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines to discuss challenges and opportunities for our bilateral partnerships. These are very important partnerships in terms of our response in this region. As many Australians will know, Australia is currently taking part in Exercise Malabar, for the first time since 2007. It is an absolute milestone opportunity to enhance Australia's maritime capabilities and to build our interoperability with major regional democracies. Last week HMAS Ballarat joined our close partners—the US navy, the Indian navy and the Japan maritime self-defence force—for the Malabar naval exercises. Australia accepted India's invitation to take part, building on the positive momentum of our recent comprehensive strategic partnership. It is through these strong regional partnerships that we can ensure that our region continues to be secure and prosperous and that both large and small nations have their sovereignty respected.

I want to pay particular tribute to the men and women of the Australian Defence Force for their tireless work. They do us incredibly proud. They work here; they work across the world. And, as I said in my remarks in relation to the men and women of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, similarly in the Australian Defence Force these men and women work away for many months of the year with their comrades to protect our interests, and we should recognise that their families miss them during that absence. But as we go to schools in our electorates and speak to the kids whose mums and dads are deployed, we are incredibly proud of the work that they do in our country's name, and we honour their service again today.

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