Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on why it is important for the Morrison government to implement its plan to keep Australians safe and secure in an increasingly uncertain global environment?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bass for her question. She knows, like I hope all members of this House know—I certainly know the government members know—that there is no greater responsibility for the Commonwealth than keeping Australians safe and secure.

Those challenges today are significant and they're great, in a time of great uncertainty globally and also within our region. That's why our government continues to take disciplined action, responsible action, careful action, measured and targeted action, to ensure that we are doing everything we can to protect Australians and the national interest of Australians. We know the first of those is to ensure that you have a strong budget to be able to support the investment in these key capabilities but also to focus our efforts on strong and disciplined economic management to support that budget. I have already outlined to the House the plan that the Australian people backed at the last election and that we are now implementing.

You need to invest in these capabilities, and next year we will have brought defence spending to two per cent of GDP, back from the record lows under the Labor Party when they were in office, when it fell to the lowest levels since prior to the Second World War in 1938. When I was in the United States, it was a matter of great pride that I could say that, for the Australian people, the Australian Commonwealth was carrying its weight when it came to our national defence, with our two per cent commitment that we'll be achieving, when so many others don't, because, in our great alliance with the United States, we carry our weight. Under this government, we've ensured we are carrying our weight again by increasing our defence spending as a share of our economy to two per cent. But it's not just that. We're restoring investments in our border agencies, in our intelligence capabilities and in our law enforcement. We're carefully nurturing and developing the strategic relationships in our region, whether with China or the United States or Indonesia. And, for the first time, we've had a ministerial level meeting of the Quad—between India, Japan, the United States and Australia—which provides stability and balance in our region and which Labor, when they were in office, rejected and abandoned.

We, as always, will introduce the laws which protect our kids and protect our nation from those who have come and committed offences under our laws. We have exported those criminals out of this country, under the policies of this government, When those opposite were in office, they let them stay here and live in our community when they should not have—bikies and others and criminal gang members who stayed in Australia.

But, most of all, we have the will to protect Australia. We are not undecided or divided on this side on national security measures, and that's why Australians can rely— (Time expired)