Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to pay respect to those that designed, built and advocated for the ADF's Bushmaster infantry mobility vehicle that has saved not only countless Australian lives but also British, Dutch and, now, Ukrainian lives. The Bushmaster was used by the ADF in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and our soldiers saw it as crucial to their survival of IEDs and mines. After his Bushmaster drove over one, Mark Donaldson VC said, 'If it weren't for the Bushmaster, we wouldn't be here.' When travelling around Kabul in 2017, I certainly felt very safe travelling in a Bushmaster with Australian soldiers.

The Bushmaster would not have seen the light of day without committed people, including Mr Chev Viviers, who is an engineer at Thales and who introduced the Bushmaster's life-saving V-shaped hull, but also Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Mark Eggler, ADF program manager and the senior systems engineer, who is with us with his wife, Watsana, today. Thank you very much, Mark. When you were involved from 2000-03, you made sure that the ADF did not drop this critical project that saved so many Australian lives. I'm proud that we've given 90 Bushmasters to Ukraine to keep them safe as well.