Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence. Would the minister update the House and all personnel at RAAF Base Amberley about the delivery of a new heavy airlift capability for the Australian Defence Force?

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for his question and for being a great champion of RAAF Base Amberley. When Wing Commander Lynda Corbould flew the first of Australia’s four C17s into Canberra this morning, it represented a new era for heavy airlift for the Australian Defence Force. In early March this year the Australian government made the decision to invest $2.1 billion of Australian taxpayers’ money in acquiring from Boeing four C17 Globemasters, and here we are in early December with the first of those aircraft being delivered. We expect to have the fourth aircraft delivered in 2008.

To put it into some perspective, these C17s can carry almost four times the payload of the well-known C130 Hercules, which will nonetheless remain the backbone of Australia’s RAAF heavy airlift. For example, if we did have a catastrophe on the west coast of Australia, a C17 could fly from the east coast to the west coast in half the time of a C130 Hercules and carry four times as much equipment. These aircraft, which will service Australia for almost 30 years, will be used extensively not only in Australia in supporting and directly helping Australians but also in our region. If we think of recent deployments in the Solomon Islands, East Timor and other places, it is obvious that Australia and the RAAF need them.

Indeed, for our services in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places that are more distant, when you think that a C17 can carry five ASLAVs and 38 personnel, it can carry an M1A1 Abrams heavy tank and a support vehicle and other personnel and it can also carry a Chinook helicopter, a four-wheel drive, a crane and other personnel, it is obvious that our country needs them and it is further evidence that the Australian government is focused not only on Australia’s immediate and near-term defence needs but also on the long-term protection and security of our country and its interests on our borders, in our region and across the world. It also should be seen as further tangible evidence of the importance of a very close relationship between Australia and the United States, because the United States Air Force, the Pentagon and others, particularly Boeing personnel, played an extremely important role in the efficient, on-time, on-cost delivery of the first of these four aircraft.