Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and acknowledge her service in the Australian Army Reserve. And, if you'll indulge me, Mr Speaker, I also acknowledge the presence today of my good friend Henry Puna, the Secretary-General of the Pacific Island Forum.

Next week it will be 100 days since our government announced the optimal pathway by which Australia will acquire a nuclear-powered submarine capability under the banner of AUKUS. This announcement represents one of the biggest defence decisions that has been made in our country's history. It brought to an end an 18-month process by which this pathway was established. But, obviously, in a larger sense we are just at the beginning of this journey so, since this decision, the government has been proceeding in earnest.

The first tranche of legislation to help support the enterprise which will ultimately deliver the nuclear-powered submarine capability has now passed this House. The decisions have been taken to establish the Australian Submarine Agency, which will commence operations in just a few weeks time on 1 July, and, as we speak, there is a process underway for the appointment of its head. In the budget we saw funding for an additional 4,000 university places in STEM subjects, including nuclear engineering, which will underpin what will be one of the biggest industrial undertakings that our country has ever seen.

The global rules based order today is under as much pressure as it has been since any time since the end of the Second World War. We are witnessing great power competition. The assumption that nations which trade with each other will never go to war with each other has been completely dispelled by the appalling invasion by Russia of Ukraine. The truth is that we live in a difficult world at a difficult time. The front line of our engagement with that world will always be diplomacy, through which we will seek to create pathways for peace. But it is so essential that we underpin this by getting the hard power equation right. Our future nuclear-powered submarines will give Australia the power to project, which will help enable us to play our part in providing for the collective security of the region in which we live, the Indo-Pacific, and the maintenance of the rules based order within that region.

These are huge undertakings. They are very serious decisions and we do not take them lightly. But, ultimately, our government's first responsibility is to our national interest, and to ensuring that each and every day we keep Australians safe.

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