Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Herbert for moving this motion in private members' business today. Given that he is a few days shy of three months in the role of shadow assistant minister for defence industry, it is only natural to expect him to come into this place to speak on all things defence industry. I would like to hope that his colleagues armed him with the facts necessary to litigate such a motion on the subject matter, which was until quite recently—along with defence and foreign affairs, to name a few—deemed to be above partisanship.

However, the member comes into this place moving a motion referencing a survey, making it his sole evidence that the vibes are off. The shadow assistant minister comes into this place keenly displaying his L-plates when it comes to getting across his brief on defence industry. He is either keenly unaware of or oblivious to the big Ls that his former government took on defence industry policy across nine long years. The member gets a few things right with this motion. Australia is facing the most complex set of strategic challenges since the end of the Second World War. However, based on a cursory vibe check of my own, it is fair to say that bringing a motion such as this into this place demonstrates the opposition's tactics team is facing the most complex set of strategic challenges in quite some time too.

Much like one of the cornerstones of our government's 2024 National Defence Strategy, the opposition have taken a leaf out of that book and leaned heavily into a strategy of denial. This strategy especially extends to their ability to acknowledge any problems from those opposite that the Albanese government had to address in any area of policy, including defence industry, and it especially denies any part our government has played in seeing this industry grow and thrive in the immediate term and policies that we have put in place since day one that are working toward the long-term growth and sustainability of defence industry decades into the future.

I will get to that in a minute, member for Durack. This strategy is not always shared by the shadow minister for defence and the shadow minister for defence industry, the member for Canning.

The member for Herbert should take note of the member for Canning's candour as he was, after all, someone who served as one of the many assistant ministers for defence during the previous government. Even the member for Canning, as assistant minister, during that time acknowledged he saw a great deal of waste when it came to defence industry and procurement. The member for Canning also acknowledged the damage caused in this vital area of policy by a revolving door of leadership changes and constant reshuffling.

The timing of the member for Herbert's motion is also curious. According to the Notice Paper, notice of this motion was given on 14 May, once more flexing the opposition's blanket strategy of denial, demonstrating this wholeheartedly by calling on the government to implement a policy framework and industry support to build self-reliance within our defence industry, and by further stating that, in the past two years, they cannot recount any actions of this government to grow Australia's sovereign industrial base, seemingly unaware of the handing down of the 2024 National Defence Strategy alongside the integrated investment program.

This is contrasted by those opposite's defence industry strategy, which was not just full of over-promising and under-delivering but promising and then nothing else after that. Their government liked to make announcements and issue press releases but when it came to funding defence projects, when it came to monitoring their progress to ensure what came off the line was not just battle-ready but fit for purpose, these announcements—and they can only be called that because they were not allocated a single dollar afterwards by the coalition government—totalled $42 billion. Perhaps the strategy of denial is a bit older than what we first thought, but that's what you get for having a government with 23 defence ministers and assistant defence ministers.

As for denying growth in our defence industry, I would like to use my state of South Australia as a prime example of why the member for Herbert might want to rethink his narrative before putting up another motion like this in the future. From the latest figures available, 2022-23, South Australia experienced an eight per cent growth to our defence industry, contributing over $1.68 billion into the industry nationally. It is an industry that accounts for 9½ thousand jobs directly, and these numbers are only expected to rise in the coming years. I can look to many companies in my electorate, like aimpoint RPL delivering on labour shortages for the defence industry, veterans being able to get into a job; AML 3D; Levett Engineering, Basetech, Century Engineering—fantastic SMEs. (Time expired)

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