Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition also agreed to this, when he said, with Raf Epstein on 15 August this year:

I wish that we could have acquired more capability within Defence earlier …

And he's right. These significant projects that the former government messed up have resulted in a number of projects running over budget and beyond time. The $44 billion Hunter Class Frigate Program: start of construction delayed by four years and a $15 billion increase in expected costs. They tried to hide that from the public. The C-27J Spartan battlefield airlifters were delivered 4½ years behind schedule and are unable to fly into battlefields. The $3.7 billion offshore patrol vessels project is running one year behind schedule. The evolved Cape class patrol boats are also nearly a year late. The battlefield command system is three years behind schedule. And several defence satellite communications projects are running two to four years behind schedule. Then, of course, we have the submarine debacle: three different prime ministers, three different submarine projects, which only ended up in delaying Australia acquiring that important capability and left Australians vulnerable. Three different prime ministers, seven different defence ministers—chaos in defence acquisition under their time in government.

Once again, it will be up to Labor to clean up the mess left by the former government when it comes to defence acquisition. Just as the Hawke government set the strategic direction for a generation with the Dibb review, so, too, will this Albanese government with the Defence Strategic Review. But we're not waiting for that capability to come into the future. We're acting to put in place measures to fix the mess that was put in place by the former government. We're establishing an independent projects and portfolio management office within Defence; establishing monthly reports on projects of concern and projects of interest to the ministers for defence and defence industry; establishing formal processes of early warning criteria for placing projects on the concern list; fostering a culture in Defence of raising attention for emerging problems and encouraging/enabling early responses; and providing troubled projects with extra resources and skills. They are the changes that the new government is making in defence acquisition to ensure that we avoid the mistakes and the debacles of the previous government that left Australia vulnerable when it comes to our defence forces.

But it's not just about capability. Importantly, Labor will invest in the members of the Australian Defence Force. Over the course of this government, we will grow the Australian Defence Force—in the military, in the reserves and in the civilian workforce—to ensure that we have the best trained, best equipped defence force in the world. I want to pay tribute to those Australians that are currently in the United Kingdom that are training Ukrainian soldiers. If you ever want an affirmation of the skills, dedication and competence of the Australian Defence Force, look no further than the request made by the Ukrainian government to have our soldiers pass on their expertise to their brave soldiers who are going into battle—many of them are civilians who have never had defence training in the past—and we pay tribute to them.

But it's not just about recruitment. It's also about ensuring that members of the Defence Force are supported during their honourable careers serving our nation. That's why, recently, this government improved the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme—improving the eligibility—to provide more support for defence members and their families and to ensure that they feel supported in their career in the Australian Defence Force. Not only is it important to support our service personnel during their active service, but it's also equally important to support them when they leave the Australian Defence Force. One of the most disgraceful policy failures of the former government was the staff cuts and the staff cap that they introduced in the Department of Veterans' Affairs. That has led to a massive backlog of DVA cases, which has resulted, unfortunately, in mental health issues, depression and, in some circumstances, suicides, as identified by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

As the new government, one of the first actions we took was to remove that disgraceful and arbitrary cap that was put on the DVA—the people who were dealing with and actively processing claims to support members who'd been injured in their service. We removed that staff cap. We're employing an additional 500 staff to ensure the DVA has the resources it needs to support those who've actively served our nation and who deserve the respect and support of the Australian people. We are not stuck in the past, as the opposition is on this matter of public importance. We are getting on with the job and, importantly, we are looking to the future. We are looking to ensure that the Australian Defence Force has the capability and is the best trained, the best equipped and, more importantly, the best supported defence force in the world, and that the members of the ADF will have pride in the service of our nation.

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