Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Defence. Today is the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. Will the minister update the House on how the Australian Defence Force is keeping Australians safe? Is the minister aware of any other approaches?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canning for his question. I note that he has served as an army officer in Afghanistan as part of one of our most recent—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You think that's pathetic—paying tribute to a soldier who has served in Afghanistan?

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

The member for Macarthur will cease interjecting and is warned.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I pay tribute to the member for Canning as a soldier who served in Afghanistan in that 16-year war that we have been involved in. He is the only person in this House who has served in combat and he does deserve to have tribute paid to him for the work he has done.

Dr Mike Kelly interjecting—

And the member for Eden-Monaro—I acknowledge his military service as well. On this day, 9/11, the 17th anniversary of the terrorist attack in New York, it is worth paying tribute to our Australian Defence Force for their service around the world in combatting terrorism. Seventeen years ago there were 800,000 Afghan boys at school; now, because of the work of the ADF in Afghanistan, there are eight million children at school in Afghanistan and 40 per cent of them are girls. In Iraq and Syria Daesh have lost 98 per cent of their territory because of the work of the ADF, our allies led by the United States, and the Iraqi security forces. Closer to home, of course, more recently we assisted the Philippines armed forces in defeating the insurgency in Marawi, a terrorist action there, and we continue to work with the Philippines in counterterrorism, in training them in city combat. But there are still great challenges, of course. Seventeen years after the attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York, there are still foreign fighters returning to South-East Asia, to our region, that we need to protect Australians against. There are terrorist cells and sympathisers in North Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia, of course, and even in Europe, that need to be counteracted and degraded.

As the saying goes, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. That's why this government is investing $200 billion in building up our military capability right now, getting to two per cent of GDP a year early by 2020, as promised five years ago by the incoming government. We're doing that build-up of military capability and we're doing as much of it here as possible, growing jobs, growing manufacturing, things like the combat reconnaissance vehicles in Queensland and Victoria, putting jobs and growth into those economies. Our first priority is always the protection of our ADF serving men and women. Our second priority is to build capability and our third priority is to do as much of that as possible in Australia.

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

The member for Corio, on indulgence?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I associate the opposition with the comments of the Minister for Defence. September 11 did change the world in which we live. It particularly changed it for the Australian Defence Force and heralded a period of service of our military men and women around the world, particularly in Afghanistan. It is right that we should be acknowledging and commemorating that service here today for people like the member for Canning, the member for Eden-Monaro and the member for Solomon. Their service and all the service of Australia's Defence Force, men and women, need to be commemorated in this place.