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

I thank the honourable member for Menzies for his question and also for his service in the defence portfolio. He is a very distinguished former Minister for Defence and is a great supporter of our Australian Defence Force personnel.

Our government, as you know, is very clear eyed about the threats within our own region, the Indo-Pacific. There are many countries, including many European countries, who are worried about the unfolding circumstances in the Indo-Pacific, and it's absolutely appropriate that the first order of this government is to keep Australians safe and secure. We will do everything within our power, everything within our capacity, to make decisions to deliver on policies that will deliver that security and that peace to our region. Through the AUKUS program, through that compact, we have been able to bolster the security of our country not only for today but for the decades into the future as well.

I, along with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, had very significant engagements in Indonesia, in India and in South Korea before we went to the United States. We had very significant discussions with the United Kingdom as well. I spoke with the secretary this morning, Ben Wallace, who is a great friend of our country, and he recommitted himself to the process and to the work that we have underway at the moment to look at the acquisition by Australia of at least eight nuclear powered submarines which will provide us with an edge and a capability into the next decade above that which operates within our region. That is an incredibly important asset for us to acquire but it's not the only element of AUKUS. I think this is a very important point to make.

I see Phil Thompson, the Member for Herbert, on the screen. I was up at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville not too long ago and I was speaking with some of the troops up there—some of whom, I should quickly note, were involved in the extraction of Australian citizens and visa holders in Kabul. I spoke with Phil and some of those members—remarkable Australians—on FaceTime the other day. We owe it to them to make sure that we deliver on the other elements of AUKUS.

Through AUKUS we will collaborate to enhance our joint capabilities across cyber, across artificial intelligence, across quantum technologies and across additional undersea capabilities. It builds on the 2020 Defence Strategic Update and the 2020 Force Structure Plan and it also includes, importantly, tomahawk cruise missiles, which will enable our Hobart class destroyers to strike distant land targets with excellent precision. The RAAF will be equipped with long range anti-ship missiles and joint air-to-surface standoff missiles. The Morrison government is determined to keep Australia safe.

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