Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. What policy changes will the Albanese Labor government make to ensure effective procurement of our nation's ADF capability in order to defend Australia's economic and security interests, and why are these changes important?

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

I thank the member for her question and acknowledge her service to our nation's Defence Force. On 3 August, the government announced the Defence Strategic Review, which has been asked to consider the complex strategic circumstances which we face, what it means that we are within the 10-year threat window—which we know the former government rightly observed exists for our country—and what that means in terms of the kind of Defence Force that we need to build for the future to keep us safe. To that end, Sir Angus Houston and Stephen Smith are casting a critical eye over the Integrated Investment Plan, the 10-year procurement schedule for our Defence Force, because a prudent management of that schedule is fundamentally important to building a powerful Defence Force.

But that task has been made so much more difficult by the legacy which has been left to us by those opposite. When it came to hoopla, the Liberals were the gold standard. When it came to defence, there were press releases by the hour, bells and whistles, streamers and balloons. They literally had Top Gun music when they were doing defence announcements. They truly were the PT Barnum of defence procurement, but when it came to delivery, well, that was actually a completely different question: frigates running late, offshore patrol vessels running late and a lost decade when it comes to our future submarines, as they chopped and changed from one country to the next.

As we came to office, we inherited 30 major projects running over time and 17 major projects running over budget to an accumulated total of more than $4 billion. The Leader of the Opposition used a love to come to this dispatch box and talk about how much money the Liberals spent on defence. Well, can I tell the House, it doesn't count as defence spending if you spend the money on absolutely nothing. It doesn't count as defence spending if you flush that money down the toilet. It's not as though we can go onto the battlefield and overwhelm our adversary by running up to them and waving a copy of the budget papers in their face. This was the single most inept, incompetent, negligent government when it came to the management of Australia's defence budget.

Let me say, the age of vaudeville is over. There are not going to be any Top Gun announcements from the Albanese government. What you will get is serious, prudent management of the defence budget because we understand that that is the way that we'll get the submarines in the water quicker, and we'll get the OPVs and the frigates back on track. In doing that, we are going to build a potent and capable Defence Force which will keep our country safe in the future.