Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on the vital role that the Australian Defence Force plays in creating jobs and growth in rural and regional Australia? How will the government's defence white paper and Defence Industry Policy Statement secure that role in years to come in my electorate of Capricornia and around Australia?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. Obviously, coming from Rockhampton and having Shoalwater Bay near to her is extremely important not only for her electorate but also for the defence of our nation and the defence exercises that go on there with our close allies. The United States will get great use of some of the expenditure that is going to be appropriated to the member for Capricornia's seat—expenditure such as the Shoalwater Bay training area, which will be upgraded to support the range of new land combat and amphibious warfare capabilities over the next decade to 2025-26, representing an investment of $150 million.

There will be an additional investment of a further $40 million as planned for the decade between 2025-26 to 2035-36. New facilities at Shoalwater Bay training area will support the introduction of new armed intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance of unmanned aircraft in the early 2020s. It will be conceived throughout regional Australia that we have substantial investment that is of benefit not only to the Defence Force but also to regional areas.

In the seat of Durack, where Melissa Price is the member—and it is also good to see Brendan Grylls here today—there will be upgrades at Learmonth and Exmouth to support the new strike and air combat capabilities, including the new F35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter and the new KC30A air-to-air refuelling aircraft.

We can see it also in the seat of Grey, where we have upgrades to the Woomera Range Complex. This is no doubt incredibly important to Rowan Ramsey, the member there. In the seat of Groom, the retiring member Ian Macfarlane will be proud to see that we have further investments in Oakey and Cabarlah barracks to support land force capabilities. There will be around $100 million in that area.

What I do like to see is that my good friend and colleague the member for Riverina has really struck the jackpot, because he has the upgrading of a range of support bases and recruitment training facilities such as the Army Recruit Training Centre at Blamey Barracks, at Kapooka and the Royal Australian Air Force Base at Wagga. In fact, I have been adding it up and the member for Riverina will be pleased that investment at Kapooka is $400 million to 2025-26 and at the RAAF Base Wagga it is around $400 million for the same period. That is $800 million there. On top of that, the member for Riverina gets a further $40 million invested for the RAAF and another $120 million at Kapooka. He is getting close to a billion dollars invested in the seat of Riverina. All in all it is a good thing for the Australian Defence Force and a very good thing for regional Australian country members.

Mr Husic interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Chifley, this is your final warning.