Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like the member for Lindsay, I also acknowledge the veterans and active ADF personnel both here in this chamber and back in my electorate of Robertson. Thank you for keeping us safe and secure. Right at this very moment and across the world, we are witnessing and experiencing the effects of great power competition. The path, the progress and the outcome of that competition are extremely complex and extremely uncertain. There is incredible strain and incredible pressure on the global rules based order, whether that be throughout the Indo-Pacific, a region that is growing rapidly, or in Eastern Europe.

To be absolutely clear in this chamber here today and to the community watching at home more broadly, in our country's most difficult moments, in particular throughout our defence history and national security, Australians young and old and from all walks of life look to the Australian Labor Party. Our track record on defence and national security speaks for itself and speaks to how Labor keeps our people safe. It was the Fisher Labor government in 1913 which established our Navy. It was John Curtin, a person who I particularly admire, who did what had to be done during the Second World War and organised Australia's national defence, made critical decisions, stood tall and ensured Australian independence. It was Gough Whitlam, a former Air Force navigator and veteran of the Second World War, and his government who unified the three armed services into a single Defence Force. And let's not forget Kim Beazley, former defence minister, who implemented the strategic posture for defence, which lasted 36 years. As a political party, the Liberal Party—the conservatives—do not have a history with defence policy or national security that even comes close to what has been achieved by our movement on this side of the House, the Australian Labor Party. In fact, when it comes to defence, their party is amateur. It is known throughout the history of our country, both now and into the future, that Labor is the true party of Australia's national defence.

Once again, the people of Australia are looking to our movement. Our record on defence shows how unaware and blind the opposition is. Our government has announced and delivered major reforms to the Projects of Concern process, including establishing an independent projects and portfolio management office within Defence, reporting monthly directly to the minister and fostering a culture in Defence of raising attention to emerging problems and encouraging and enabling an early response. We're providing troubled projects with extra resources and skills, convening regular ministerial summits to discuss remediation plans and ensuring the Defence budget is ready, lifting it to 2.3 per cent of GDP—0.2 per cent higher than what the opposition had planned. We have provided an additional $30.5 billion for Defence across the decade as part of our last budget.

Now let's look at our record on defence projects. We have delivered continuous naval shipbuilding in Western Australia through the selection of a pilot sovereign shipbuilder and the Army landing craft project. We are delivering on guided weapons and explosive ordnance enterprise, where we will manufacture missiles—the guided multiple-launch rocket systems—in Australia, and that is not just an empty promise. We have signed a multimillion-dollar contract with Lockheed Martin to see this work delivered. We are significantly uplifting and securing our war stocks, with 42 high-mobility artillery rocket systems and ammunition, 200 Tomahawk missiles, 60 advanced antiradiation guided missiles with extended range and millions for SPIKE long-range 2 antitank guided missiles for our combat reconnaissance vehicles.

It is clear from what I have just said and from speakers we have heard from on this side of the chamber that the Australian Labor Party, currently led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is the party of national security, the party of defence and the party that will keep our people safe.

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