David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Minister for Defence. Can the Assistant Minister confirm that, at the same time the government is proposing to cut the real wages of Australian Defence Force personnel, his department employs over 200 spin doctors and spends almost $300,000 on media training?

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me thank the member for Batman for his question. Let me say under this government there are a whole lot fewer spin doctors employed by the Department of Defence than there were previously. There are a whole lot fewer media people employed in the Department of Defence now than there were previously. There are a whole lot fewer people spinning numbers, spinning facts and spinning events.

You want to speak wrong; the member for Batman wants to speak about events and spin doctors. Let's cast our minds back to the fabled 2013 Defence white paper—a white paper now in infamy—where fighter jets and military aircraft were flown in to set a backdrop for Prime Minister Gillard and Defence Minister Smith so they would look good as they ripped $16 billion out of Defence. Not content to take the money out, Labor spent $200,000-plus on a spin campaign of fighter jets, personnel and aircraft so Labor could look good on the issue.

The member for Batman comes in and lectures us. Let this government make it very clear: we won't be lectured by Labor, not now, not never when it comes to Defence and Defence cuts.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You remember that line, do you? Let us give that line some substance on something that really matters. The Labor Party do not walk in here and lecture this side about Defence funding. Don't walk in and lecture about the cost of Defence and what we put in it. Don't do it, because it just won't stack up in terms of the money the Labor Party has provided and what this side has provided.

Every single man and woman of the government can stand up and back the threefold envelope that we took to the election. Everyone can stand up on that threefold envelope. Everyone can support no cuts to Defence. Every saving is reinvested and budgeted back to two per cent of GDP—something that the Labor Party could never, ever deliver.

I say to the member for Batman: there is a whole lot less spinning on this side and a whole lot more honesty. We would love to provide more for our fighting men and women but, when the Labor Party has left the cupboard bare and there is nothing in our hands to give because of what Labor has taken away, we are honest and upfront about it.