Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the ministers on the serious way in which defence is treated in this budget. We're still waiting for the apology we asked for last year in this forum from the opposition for the disgraceful preelection scare campaigns that somehow the government could not be trusted on defence. We knew the campaign was getting really bonkers when they were running the line with the Australian that somehow the now Minister for Defence and Deputy Prime Minister was some kind of Chinese spy or Manchurian candidate—a great 48 hours of journalism! They ran a scare campaign that Labor would cut defence. Again, these budget papers in the second year of this government prove that that was in fact untrue. We won't say 'a lie' in this forum, but that is what it was.

Defence spending will rise to the highest in decades, two per cent of GDP rising another 10 per cent to about 2.2 per cent over the next 10 years. But most importantly it's not just dollars; it's injecting a sense of urgency into defence which was lacking in the previous decade of drift and dysfunction and decay and denial and devaluation and dithering and disgraceful non-delivery, distraction, deception, dilly-dallying in defence under the previous government.

Our strategic circumstances are the most serious since World War II. The comfortable planning assumption on which the country has been able to rely for decades, of a 10-year strategic warning time, has gone, and we need a hard-nosed Australian approach to deter conflict by increasing the lethality, resilience and readiness of the ADF. This budget sets out the first steps to give effect to the recommendations of the Defence Strategic Review. More than $270 billion of investment is confirmed in the Integrated Investment Plan. The acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, critical for deterrence and protection of our maritime trade, is funded over the forward estimates. There is about $9 billion for AUKUS, of which the submarines are part. AUKUS is critical. It's a technology-sharing partnership with our closest allies. Frankly, it was overhyped but undersold by the former government. Running around with dozens of Australian flags did not actually explain to the Australian people the importance and the seriousness of the AUKUS partnership.

We are developing the ability to precisely strike targets at longer range and, importantly, manufacturing munitions—bullets and missiles—in this country. One of the key lessons from the Ukrainian conflict is the need to be able to manufacture and maintain the consumables of war and maintain your platforms with sovereign capability. We are improving the ADF's ability to operate from northern Australia, after a decade of the coalition doing nothing. Interestingly, back when Stephen Smith was the defence minister and Sir Angus Houston was running the defence forces, in the forward planning there were plans to upgrade the northern bases. But, under the decade of dysfunction of those opposite, those plans disappeared, leaving us a decade behind where we should be in terms of allowing those northern and western bases to be forward operating bases should the contingencies materialise.

Growth and retention of a skilled workforce—on this one I have to acknowledge that the economy is no friend of the defence forces. The fact is that the situation we've inherited has seen us going backwards in net terms this year again, by 900 personnel, rather than the net gain of 1,000 which we need to meet the increase of 18½ thousand personnel over the next decade or two. Interestingly, that was unfunded under the previous government. They had $42 billion of defence projects, including the expansion of the ADF, for which there were press releases, announcements and Australian flags, but there was no actual funding. As the Deputy Prime Minister rightly reminds the House regularly, you can't go into battle waving a press release or waving the budget papers or waving a flag—'Stop! I've got a flag! I've got a press release! I've announced this new capability!' You actually have to fund it and to deliver it. It's not even the funding, of course; billions of projects were simply not delivered. They were announced. They were running late. There were 28 projects running 97 years late—covered up.

This budget has a new technology and industry initiative, with $3.4 billion over 10 years for the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator for supply chain resilience. Importantly, it also commits us to deepening diplomacy and defence partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia is an island, but we're not alone. Rightly, DFAT, Foreign Affairs, should take the lead in setting national strategy, and Defence should bring to bear its capabilities for deterrence or, if the worst happens, for conflict, in support of that national strategy. But that does rely on tough decisions being made about priorities. This government is a complete contrast with the rabble opposite.

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