Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to speak on what is International Men’s Day, a very important initiative. I rise to speak today in this adjournment debate about a very important issue to my local electorate, which is that of the Woodside Army base and the plans of the Rudd Labor government in relation to Army bases, particularly smaller Army bases. My concern is for the Woodside Army base located in the Adelaide Hills in my electorate of Mayo. The Woodside Army base has a long and prestigious history in the Adelaide Hills. It has a very close link with the Woodside community and is very much loved as part of that community.

The former member for Mayo, to give him due credit, played a significant role in ensuring that the air defence regiment remained located at Woodside during his 23 years as the federal member for Mayo, and I intend to walk in the same footsteps. The Woodside Army base is a very important aspect of the community of the Adelaide Hills. As I said, it is tied very closely to the community. Many people who are located there of course have children who go to local primary schools and high schools, and those people are part of the fabric of the community. The Woodside pageant, which is coming up as Christmas approaches, traditionally has a celebration of the Woodside Army Barracks’ commitment to, and celebrated history in, that community.

It is very important that following the review by George Pappas, some of which was released yesterday, we get a commitment from the Minister for Defence to retain the Army base at Woodside as an operational Army base. I understand there is a push to create superbases around the country. It is not for me to comment on the overall policy implications of those decisions; I will leave that to the appropriate shadow minister. However, in some respects and in some cases it makes good sense to do those types of things. However, in the Woodside case, there are a couple of very pertinent reasons why it does not make sense to move the regiment out of that base. If you were to create these superbases I imagine there would be two reasons for it. One would be strategic, and those are important considerations as far as our defence goes; the other would be economic, for savings in the defence department, which of course is a big-spending department. How to ensure that spending is kept in check and spent appropriately is a matter of constant discussion in this place.

On the economic side of this debate, closing Woodside would actually have very little benefit, because the land in Woodside is in the watershed of the Mount Lofty Ranges, which is very important for Adelaide’s water supplies. It is very much part of the catchment and therefore is not able to be sold off as other land bases around the country would be for development. The government of South Australia is unfortunately pursuing very proactive development policies in the Adelaide Hills, which of course is very much against community wishes in a lot of respects. We would not want to see the federal government move the regiment out of Woodside to create a situation where a state Labor government saw some dollar signs pop up with a potential sale and benefited from it. That would be the first and important reason in that respect. So the economic reason of selling the land is therefore not there.

It makes good sense to leave what is a very popular and accepted part of the community in Woodside, and of course people from the base live in the surrounding towns as well. In Mount Barker a member of the Woodside regiment lives across the road from us. As I say, it is an important part of the community. These people work in the RSLs and assist with community development. This defence minister, in fairness to him, wrote back to me very promptly when I wrote to him on this matter. There was not much in his letter, but he did write back very promptly and I appreciate that. But I now want, very importantly, a commitment that Woodside will remain open, active and part of the Adelaide Hills community. It is a very important part of the Adelaide Hills community and I hope to get that assurance very soon.