Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. He is not here but maybe the assistant minister or the Minister for Defence Personnel can answer. Earlier this year, on February 28, the Minister for Defence, Richard Marles MP, stated: 'In order to develop a strong, sovereign and internationally competitive Australian defence industrial base, we will need to leverage our collaboration with our close partners and likeminded countries.' But over these past few months, I have spent time visiting people in defence industry right around Australia, in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and in New South Wales. There are lots of great companies exporting some of what they make overseas to other defence forces but are finding it difficult to get orders here, so, sadly, they have been left to hang out to dry by this Labor government, with many telling me that they are not getting any orders and that, in fact, there have been no new orders from this government since they came to office.

So my question to the minister is: Where are the orders to sustain and develop this sovereign defence industry base that your minister spoke about and that you promised? Around AUKUS, where are the orders for the next five years? How are these defence industry companies around AUKUS in the next five years going to be fed? You are contributing to that by not putting one extra dollar in the forward estimates. Why are you not putting any new money into the next four years? You keep going on about the next 10 years. Well, that is great in years 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 if you are still in government but what about these next four years? If we are facing such a sense of urgency as stated in the DSR on page 17, 'Strategically we have already entered a decisive period for the Indo Pacific,' why are we not putting any new money in?

The minister continues to stand behind the microphone and deliver false hope by using sovereign capability as a buzzword, but when exactly will the minister step up and start to support Australian defence industry with orders instead of dishing out empty words, which results in empty bank accounts? Can the minister outline what orders the government has placed that directly support Australian industry? In case you need to be more specific, if you look up '155 millimetre munitions', over one million of those have been fired off in the Ukraine war resulting in a worldwide shortage. Can the minister confirm how many 155 millimetre munitions Australia has in stock currently. How many have we got? And if you don't know, why not? Can the minister confirm that the government has ordered Australian manufactured 155 millimetre munitions in the last 12 months during this worldwide shortage?

Before the minister tries to hide behind a bureaucratic process of CASG, let's go there. What is the minister doing to get CASG to place orders with Australian businesses manufacturing here? What has Minister Conroy done in the last 13 months to get CASG to order from Australian companies—not what you have told the department but three tangible things that you have done to bring change to CASG and, in turn, tangible change to defence industry? Unless the minister is driving these changes, it will be the same old, same old. Our defence industry in this nation can no longer continue to hold on waiting to be fed. So tell me, Minister, how many people within CASG have two levels of experience where they are ex-defence but are also working in defence industry? It's not one or the other but both, and, if you don't know, why don't you know? The Australian defence industries deserve better than what this government is giving them. They deserve more than ministers who say one thing but continue to kick key decisions down the road and deliver only review after review.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 10:15 to 10: 28

Perhaps the Assistant Minister for Defence or the Minister for Defence Personnel could answer those questions to the Minister for Defence Industry. To the Minister for Defence Personnel: the Australian Defence Force and the men and women who serve within it deserve the full and unrelenting support of your government and the whole parliament. So let's talk about Navy recruiting figures in the last 12 months. Information recently provided to me reveals that whilst the Navy has recruited 1,100 new recruits, we've lost 1,500—can the minister confirm that is correct?—and that the Navy now faces negative personnel attrition of 400 in the last 12 months alone. Minister, we want to see you do well in this area. We want to see more people, men and women, joining the ADF. Everyone on this side, on the opposition, wants to see you succeed. So maybe you can outline a little bit about what you're doing in that space as well.

See this speech in context