Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia’s finest are somewhat concerned by statements and actions, or should I say a lack of action, by the Minister for Defence, Joel Fitzgibbon, since he was sworn in last year. First it was the charade and feigned concern over the acquisition of the Super Hornets, where he went from supporting the acquisition in opposition as shadow minister for defence to wanting to cancel the acquisition upon being sworn in as the minister and then to proclaiming the Super Hornet to be the best thing since sliced bread. He knew the true capability of the aircraft before he called his review; all he did was waste taxpayers’ money on a charade of a review to which he already knew the answers—all the time making cheap political points at the expense of our Australian Defence Force personnel. I say that because it is those skilled professionals in the Defence Force who do the due diligence on capability and make the recommendation to the government of the day on the preferred acquisition. Minister, it was on the recommendation of the Defence Force experts that the Super Hornets were acquired.

And then there is the ongoing charade and chest thumping on whether we should be in the JSF program or not—one minute the minister denounces the JSF then just a couple of weeks later he claims it is the best option available. When the member for Tangney questioned the performance of the Joint Strike Fighter—claiming it had a low aerodynamic performance, did not climb well and was slow—the minister claimed that the JSF performed badly during a recent US exercise and claimed it could be outflown by Russian and Chinese competitors, citing a report that came from recent exercises. It has been put to the minister that if the JSF is so bad then we should buy the Sukhoi fighters. In the same article on 24 September by Nick Butterly from the West Australian he was:

Asked if he believed the JSF would be the best aircraft for Australia, he said: “Yes, it is the only fifth-generation aircraft likely to be available.”

I cannot begin to tell you the effect that all this indecision has on Australia’s defence industry. Failure to support platform acquisitions is one thing; but failure to support our men and women on the ground in harm’s way is another.

It only gets worse. At a time when his ministerial colleagues are using the poll driven focus group wording about being clearly ‘decisive’, it is absolutely disappointing to find that, when it comes to supporting our troops engaged in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan, the defence minister does not have a rock-solid opinion. One moment the opinion of the Minister for Defence is that ‘the war against the Taliban is unwinnable’. The minister said so on 7 October when he supported comments by Brigadier Carleton-Smith, commander of the British forces in Afghanistan, who stated that a military victory over the Taliban is ‘neither feasible nor supportable’. Well, that is what he told Mark Dodd of the Australian in an interview.

Then on 11 October the defence minister changed his mind again when, in an article by Greg Sheridan in the Australian, he said, ‘If the NATO partners properly resource and coordinate the civil, military and political effort then a relatively stable Afghanistan is achievable.’ The minister is all over the place. On 15 October at the National Press Club the Prime Minister said:

… there’s no point being engaged in a military action unless you have a view within government that that action is winnable.

On 16 October, in an article by Ian McPhedran in the Herald Sun, according to the PM the war in Afghanistan is:

… “winnable” otherwise Australian soldiers would not be there fighting the Taliban …

On 15 and 16 October the PM said he thought the war was ‘winnable’. Then, finally, after 14 days of absolute indecision on his position, the Minister for Defence, Joel Fitzgibbon, on 21 October—in response to a dorothy dixer from the member for Robertson, who was requesting an update on Afghanistan and the ‘recent successes achieved by the Australian troops’—said:

While I certainly share Brigadier Carlton-Smith’s frustration, I do not and the government does not share his level of pessimism.

So the minister has been all over the shop on this issue—from believing it is all a total loss and failure, to mild support, to ‘who would ever know what his position will be tomorrow’. This is the defence minister who single-handedly creates a crisis in confidence wherever he goes. Our defence forces need decisive action—action that supports them and what they do for our nation at the request of the government of the day. Our nation needs strong, decisive leaders. Minister, the least you can do is believe in our ADF personnel and what they are doing.