Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a pleasure to launch the Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS this week, alongside my colleague, my fellow co-chair from the other side of the House, Luke Gosling MP. The AUKUS pact with the United Kingdom and the United States represents Australia's most significant leap in defence capability in our nation's history, born under the hard work of the former Liberal government and particularly the former prime minister, Scott Morrison. Not only will AUKUS deliver a world-class submarine fleet; our nation will also benefit from emerging technologies such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, undersea drones and hypersonics. The AUKUS pact should be, and is, above politics. It is an ambitious partnership that will outlast this government and this parliament, which is why I decided to co-chair the parliamentary friends group on AUKUS.

It was the former Liberal government that agreed to the creation of the Trilateral Security Partnership, noting the security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. We recognised the importance of keeping Australians safe and strengthening our close ties with our partners and friends in the UK and the US, and it's wonderful to see the new government has continued this pact.

At our first event, we heard from Commodore Peter Scott about the life of a submariner. Commodore Scott joined the Royal Australian Navy as a 17-year-old midshipman in 1983, and has recently published his book, Running Deep: An Australian Submarine Life. It was great to be joined at our first event by former PM Morrison, who was instrumental in the creation of the AUKUS pact, and to hear his insights and appreciation for this new friendship group as a platform to maintain momentum on AUKUS both here in Australia and with our overseas counterparts.

Our vision for this group is that it becomes a place to discuss the many considerations brought about by the AUKUS agreement, from costs to workforce and everything in between. Our nation has a lot of work to do, and this group provides a platform for parliamentarians to facilitate these nation-building discussions. At our launch, many opportunities and challenges were raised, including how we attract young people to a career in the submarine industry.

This is new territory for Australia. That's why bipartisanship is so vital. I look forward to having many more of these important discussions with stakeholders, industry and those from the other side of the House, to ensure we can make the most of the AUKUS pact for the benefit and security of our nation.