Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. How does the budget clean up the mess left in defence and deliver the priorities outlined in the Defence Strategic Review? What has been the response?

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 his service in the Australian Defence Force. Tuesday night's budget laid down a careful, sober, clear plan by which the government would fund the implementation of the AUKUS agreement and the government's response to the Defence Strategic Review. We've done this by increasing the defence budget over the medium term, above the trajectory we inherited from those opposite, and by making really difficult decisions to reprioritise areas within defence, from areas which, frankly, were less important to other areas where resources were needed the most.

When the government laid down the Defence Strategic Review, the shadow minister for defence accused us of cannibalising defence to pay for our priorities. But, on Sunday, the shadow Treasurer made clear that it is the position of the coalition that defence spending should stay within the budget envelope which they established. So if you are not going to reprioritise defence spending on the one hand and you're not going to increase defence spending on the other, then the only way those two statements add up is if the Leader of the Opposition has the honesty tonight in his budget reply to make clear that a coalition government would not be funding the AUKUS agreement, that a coalition government would not be funding a new long-range strike capability for this country, that a coalition government would not be resourcing our Defence Force personnel, which this country so badly needs. They cannot have it both ways.

But don't expect any outbreak of honesty of that kind tonight, because we saw the way those opposite operated when they were the government, when their guiding philosophy in defence policy was smoke and mirrors. They made $42 billion worth of announcements without a cent behind them, which meant that, for a full quarter of what Defence was expected to purchase, there was not a dollar. They never made a difficult decision. They never engaged in serious defence policy. In fact, the only decision they ever made was on what music they were going to use on the videos they produced, which used Defence Force personnel and asked people to donate to the Liberal Party. That is what Defence actually means to them. Australia faces the most serious circumstances that we've had since the end of the Second World War. We need serious people making serious decisions, and the only party in this country right now doing that is Labor.