Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

After listening to the posing, preening and prognostications of the previous speaker, it gives me the opportunity to talk about national security, Defence Force posture and defence personnel. During question time today, the Prime Minister said, 'My job is to keep Australians safe.' If that's the case when it comes to defence personnel, as the previous speaker was talking about, this government has monumentally failed. There has never been a Defence Force posture review undertaken in the last nine years by this government. Not once have they examined it.

The Morrison-Joyce government has failed to plan for our national security. They have failed in recruitment and retention. Five and a half thousand people leave our ADF personnel every year, and they fail to deal with the transition to civilian life. But they've also failed to recruit. The latest Defence annual report shows that in 2020-21 Defence met only 90 per cent of the permanent force recruitment targets, and we know it has failed to meet the 2016 Defence white paper targets every year since 2015-16 under this government and the various prime ministers they've had. At the same time, the 2020 Defence Strategic Update and the 2020 Force structure plan showed that workforce costs are set to fall as a percentage of the defence budget while capability acquisitions will rise. In other words, personnel will go down while capacity will go up. This means that this government is massively underinvesting in our defence people and defence jobs relative to capability and procurement. Let's talk about that. That's their plan for the future. Given that the government is failing to meet its current recruitment targets and that personnel shortages are already impacting the ADF, this could become a pressing defence capability issue. The previous speaker didn't talk about that. So don't give us lectures about national security when you can't fill your defence personnel in the ADF.

Back in 2020, as part of the strategic defence update, the government promised to deliver a new defence workforce strategy in the following year, 2021. It didn't deliver that strategy. It came and went. We haven't seen it. Now they're saying that they'll deliver it this year. We still haven't seen it, and I doubt whether we'll see it this side of the election. We understand it's been delayed, apparently, because of the AUKUS agreement between Australia, the UK and the United States. If they can't deliver a strategy to fulfil their previous commitments, how do they plan for the future?

Of course there's no guarantee that the government is on track to meet the current white paper target of around 62,400 personnel. We need to see a new workforce plan as soon as possible to know if there are enough people to actually operate the future force of the ADF. The reality is: we don't have enough personnel now, let alone staff, for the future acquisition of nuclear submarines, new ships, long-range missile systems, manned and unmanned spy craft and cybercapability. We need defence personnel, and the government is not planning for the future in that space. The government hasn't had a posture review during the whole tenure of the government. It hasn't fulfilled it once in terms of the number of personnel to fill our ADF to improve our national security. So don't give us lectures when it comes to this issue. Don't preen and pose and prognosticate over there when you haven't got the personnel to staff the ADF to keep us safe in this country.

It's been reported the Navy has already launched Plan Delphinus to grow the submariner force from 852 to 2,000 personnel for the proposed French submarines—which are no longer required! Even more submariners will now be required for the nuclear subs, so the Navy will need 20,000 personnel—up from the current 15,000. We haven't got enough ADF personnel to keep us safe in terms of national security. There's no force posture review, and the Navy will need another 5,000 personnel for the new nuclear submarines.

It really blows this government's commitment out of the water when it comes to defence in this country. Capability is going up and workforce is going down. The government and the defence minister have some serious questions to answer. They need to come up with a plan and come up with it fast. Don't come in here and give us lectures about national security when you can't do your job in defence personnel for the future.

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