Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I can't believe that, in something so important, we have something so puerile as a person tabling a letter between Robert Gordon Menzies and Stanley Bruce. How on earth is that relevant to the things that are before us? Your children are going to live in a different world to us. We've had Wang Yi, who has made tours of Timor-Leste, of Papua New Guinea, of the Solomon Islands, of Kiribati, of the Cook Islands and of Fiji and who's also had online meetings with so many areas, like the Federated States of Micronesia. Why are they doing this? Because they are encircling Australia. This is a process of encirclement of Australia. We have to realise how important this is. Back in November the Prime Minister of Australia said that defence was a top priority. We have a defence minister who tells us how good a job he's doing. Do you know which two people are not in this chamber right now? The Prime Minister of Australia and, on an MPI about defence, the defence minister. Neither of them is here.

This is an issue of utmost importance. As the member for Canning has said, we have issues not only with China but with the provocations of Iran and third parties such as the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah. This is a new world we're living in. They're probing. We have the rogue state of North Korea, which is basically working as an adjunct at times, I believe, with the People's Republic of China—just tempting, probing, seeing. We have Russia, which has actually invaded another nation. Everybody thought it would come to an end. Everybody thought they'd ride over the horizon and everything would be right, but it's not. The world has changed. We have to have a government that wakes up and deals with that. If we keep on letting our Defence Force numbers fall down, we are making our nation weaker. If we are unable to put a ship in the Middle East to protect the Suez Canal, we are putting on display on a big board to the whole world that we are weaker.

These are the issues that are before us. He should have tabled the frigates that have been launched and the warships that have been built. He should have tabled that, but he can't, because they just don't exist. We have had a review. We're having reviews after reviews, but we are not having the substantive action that's needed to defend this nation. They always say 'sine qua non'—without this, nothing. If we do not have a defence force, we have nothing. And, to defend our nation, we have to become as powerful as possible as quickly as possible.

Today, at two o'clock, Loy Yang A went offline. The wholesale price of electricity, whilst we have been sitting in this chamber, has gone through the roof. This is a sign. How can a nation that can't even provide power to itself have the capacity to defend itself? These are the issues that are befalling us right now. As George Santayana said, those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it. So, if you want to borrow something from history, I say to the minister, then don't table a letter from Robert Gordon Menzies to Stanley Melbourne Bruce; what you should be doing is tabling a historical document of what happens to a nation such as Australia when our trade routes and our supply corridors to the United States of America are cut off. That's what you should be tabling. That's what you should be aware of. That's what a prudent and proper defence bench would be able to do. They'd be able to come in here and talk about that and talk about what their solution is. But we can't get that. We get funny little parlour games about what they're doing.

I'll just chip in one more thing: to say that our actions in Vietnam were wrong is an absolute disgrace. It's a disgrace to those who served and a disgrace to those who died. Are you saying they died for nothing? Are you saying they served for nothing? That was to exhaust the communist insurgency that was happening at that time of their resources. Seek out and close with the enemy, kill or capture them by day or by night, regardless of season, weather or terrain—that's what those service men and women of Australia did. I ask you to come back into the chamber and take that comment back.

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