James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's my privilege to report to the House on my participation last week in the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program. It was my great honour to spend the week on HMAS Stuart, an Anzac class frigate, with the member for Petrie. It was nice to get to know him a little better. In fact, we shared a cabin, so I know him very well subsequent to that. It was a great honour to spend the week with Commander Luke Ryan—happily a South Australian—and his entire crew. They do fantastic work. We should all be very proud of our service personnel. For me to spend the week with those members of that crew in the Royal Australian Navy was a great honour and pleasure. Of course, it was just one example of how all of our service personnel serve our nation and our interests.

As someone from Adelaide, I was particularly interested in broadening my understanding of a naval frigate. The Future Frigate program in South Australia, which commences steel cutting next year—the $35 billion build of nine type 26 frigates in Adelaide by British Aerospace—is a massive contributor to the future economic prospects of my home state of South Australia. I thank again the crew of HMAS Stuart for their time, the experience I had and the broadening of my understanding of what that capability means for our nation.