Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

My electorate of Brand has a long and proud history of association with the Royal Australian Navy and Australia's submarine fleet. So I was delighted earlier this month to join Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Minister for Defence Personnel Matt Keogh and the WA Minister for Defence Industry, Paul Papalia, at the South Metropolitan TAFE in Rockingham to detail the major role that HMAS Stirling, on Garden Island, will have in the AUKUS agreement.

The AUKUS agreement is the single biggest investment in our defence capability and the Rockingham and Kwinana community will be the great beneficiary of this very important investment. Over the next decade, the Australian government will invest up to $8 billion to expand HMAS Stirling, creating around 3,000 direct jobs for our local community. I will work with the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles to ensure the concerns of our community are addressed—particularly in relation to road infrastructure in the suburbs surrounding what is the largest naval base in our nation.

The community of Rockingham and Kwinana also look forward to welcoming submarines to our shores when what's known as the SRF-West rotations begin in coming years, but also, over the immediate future, the visits of submarines from the Royal Navy and the US Navy. We always have welcomed these submarines to the shores of Rockingham and Garden Island, and we will continue to do so.

The Brand community has a proud association with the Australian Defence Force, and so it was a real honour for me to host a Veterans' and Families' Hub consultation with the Minister for Defence Personnel and Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh, at the wonderful Port Kennedy RSL. Brand is home to more than 8,000 defence personnel and veterans, and HMAS Stirling is, as I've said often, the largest naval base in the country. The forum is part of an Albanese Labor government election commitment to provide a $5 million veterans' hub for the South Metropolitan Region. This hub will provide tailored services, including support for the all-important transition to civilian life; advocacy and mental health services; and a range of community activities. The Albanese government is delivering for Rockingham and Kwinana and the whole community in all of those suburbs, and I'm looking forward to the completion of the veterans' hub in mid-2025, with services to be offered before this time.

I really want to thank the Port Kennedy RSL, for hosting this discussion and for your great hospitality, and all of the people—veterans and community members—who turned out on that day to participate in this really consultative and practical forum. I look forward to being at the Port Kennedy RSL for the Anzac Day dawn service coming up, nice and early; we know that they fire off the cannons there and it's always quite a morning, as we commemorate the service of Australian women and men in the defence forces of this nation, in the defence of this nation over so many years. So thanks once again to all the RSLs and to Port Kennedy RSL.

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