Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

When the Albanese government was elected, we undertook the most comprehensive review of the posture and preparedness of the Australian Defence Force in the last two decades, the Defence Strategic Review. That indicated that the Australian Defence Force was not fit for purpose to defend our nation and to meet the challenges of the future.

So the government is fixing that. We've developed a plan to ensure that we can fix that issue of preparedness of the Australian Defence Force, and we'd like to work with the opposition to achieve that aim. When it comes to defence, the defence of our nation should be above politics. It should be bipartisan. We shouldn't be taking pot shots at each other over petty little things here in this chamber. We should be trying to work together. So we've got a plan, and we'd like to work with the opposition.

You can summarise the plan with three words: we're investing in people, power and posture of the Australian Defence Force to ensure that it's ready to meet the challenges of the future. What are we doing to invest in people? We know that the Australian Defence Force is underpowered by about 5,000 troops. We know that, and we know that our people are our greatest asset. So we're making changes to ensure that we can recruit more Australians and we can retain more Australians in the Australian Defence Force.

That's why we introduced the $50,000 retention bonus. That's why we're changing a lot of the housing policies to provide more flexibility for ADF members around their housing options. That's why we legislated to improve the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme. That's why we're doing more to support families of Australian Defence Force members, making it more flexible for them to support their spouses' careers and more options to support their children, and why we're supporting the great work of people like Gwen Cherne, the defence families advocate, and Kahlil Fegan, the Repatriation Commissioner. They are advising the government about how we can improve the career prospects and the family oriented nature of the Australian Defence Force.

Those policies are starting to bear fruit. We know that the retention problems that we had under the previous government, with record numbers leaving the Australian Defence Force, are now coming down. We need to do more to recruit, and that's what yesterday's announcements were about—trying to open up the Australian Defence Force to more Australians.

In terms of power, we're investing an additional $5.7 billion over the forward estimates and $50 billion over the decade, on top of the proposed expenditure of the previous government. That is an additional $50 billion investment by this government in improving the power and the strike capability of the Australian Defence Force. It's all aimed at ensuring that we have the power to deter potential adversaries, particularly within our region. It's led by AUKUS, which was an initiative of the previous government that this government has continued and has put the plan in place to deliver.

We recently saw some announcements regarding the surface combatant fleet and improving the lethality of that. Now when it comes to AUKUS, it's the largest industrial endeavour that our nation has ever undertaken and we will need to do that in partnership with industry. I know the member for Warringah has some questions about that, which we're happy to answer. It will be through the Defence Industry Development Strategy and through ASCA that companies such as the ones in the member for Warringah's electorate will get the opportunity to participate in AUKUS and in other endeavours.

We're ensuring that we're investing in the short term as well. Here are some of the investments that we're making in the short term. We're about to receive 20 new C-130 aircraft. We're investing in GWEO—guided weapons and explosive ordnance. We're acquiring Tomahawk missiles, and they'll be manufactured here in Australia. We're acquiring the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System—HIMARS—in the next four years. We're investing in more Redback infantry fighting vehicles. There's the REDSPICE program, which will improve our cyber capability.

The final area is the posture of the Australian Defence Force. We're basically upgrading every single base across the north of Australia, getting major upgrades from Scherger, in the north of Queensland, right through to Learmonth, in the north of Western Australia. Every single one of those bases will get an upgrade to improve the capability and capacity of the Australian Defence Force.

This government is making investments in the Australian Defence Force through that additional $50 billion, which will see it grow to about 2.3 per cent of GDP over the decade, ensuring that we improve the people, the power and the posture of the Australian Defence Force.

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