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

I thank the honourable member for his question. He well knows, given his background in the defence portfolio, that this government is absolutely committed to investing in the men and women of the Australian Defence Force. We're not only interested in investing in them, but we're interested in making sure that we can give them the equipment and the stock that is available to help them help us to keep our country safe. We have made no apology for that. From day one we've ramped up, off a very, very low base, the investment that we've made in defence.

I always think that the Labor Party promises a lot when they're in opposition; when they get into government they do the complete opposite. Part of the reason, of course, is that they can only be in government with the assistance of the Greens, and the Greens demand that the defence budget be cut. That's exactly what happened when Labor was last in power, because defence spending under Labor fell to 1.56 per cent of GDP. It was the lowest since 1938. So when you hear the men and women of the Australian Defence Force saying that they don't trust Labor—

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