Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. When it came to defence, the former government made announcements based on pictures and press conferences rather than substance. What will the Albanese Labor government do to ensure the professionalism and integrity of the Australian Defence Force is always the focus?

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

I thank the member for his question and acknowledge the contribution that he has made to defence policy in this country. The Australian Defence Force belongs to all of us. We seek diversity in the Australian Defence Force so that it looks like Australia, so that we can say the ADF is of us and at the same time all of us. This is why it's important the Defence Force is above partisan politics.

There are a number of members of this House who have served in the ADF, and they rightly celebrate their service as part of the CV of why they are here—that's completely fair enough.

There are other members of this House who've had the opportunity to see the Defence Force in action, and they've posted images of themselves with the ADF—also, completely fair enough. But when it comes to doing press releases or press conferences as the Minister for Defence or as the Prime Minister, it is so important that we do not cast a political overlay over an institution in this nation which should be sacred. That is the standard that the Albanese government will set, but that is not what we saw in the last 10 years because those opposite never avoided a press conference where they could use the Australian Defence Force as a backdrop.

The low point of this was on 4 January 2020, during the biggest megafire in our recorded history, just four days after a firestorm swept through the South Coast of New South Wales. On a day on which the temperature hit 44 degrees in this town, in the midst of lives being lost and property being damaged, those opposite made a decision to call out the Defence Force to help with the bushfires, and then they produced a video which had images of the ADF. The tagline was how to donate to the Liberal Party. That was a disgrace. That was the moment which showed deep disrespect for our nation's uniform. But it made clear that the Liberals love the politics of Defence; they just have no interest in Defence policy.

The Albanese the government will be very, very different. There will be no press conferences using Top Gun music. There will be no press conferences using the ADF as a prop. There will be no press conferences with party political banners and no press conferences with that tag inviting people to donate to a political party. When we do press conferences with the ADF, there will be a separation so that the messages that we have as politicians stand apart from the service that our brave men and women in uniform give to this nation.