Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. Can the minister confirm reports in an article by Andrew Tillett in today's Australian Financial Review about the minister giving a verbal dressing-down of his secretary and the Chief of the Australian Defence Force. Why does the minister blame officials for his own failures of leadership?

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

I thank the member for his question. It is an important question. The Department of Defence and the Australian Defence Force are on a journey, and we are working very cooperatively with the senior leadership of the Department of Defence and the ADF in relation to that journey. But I make no excuses or apologies for demanding excellence and a culture of excellence in the Department of Defence and in the Australian Defence Force.

There is a way to go before we have that culture of excellence in the Department of Defence and in the Australian Defence Force. But having said that, I have some sympathy for where Defence is at, because the issues around culture in Defence today are a result of the 10-year tenure from those opposite. Because when you have six—really seven—different defence ministers over the course of nine years, that is demoralising to Defence and it has been. When you lead the oldest surface fleet in our country since the Second World War, that is demoralising and it has been. When you make $45 billion worth of announcements and you do not put a cent behind them, that is demoralising and it has been. So there is a lot of mess to clean up, which this government is committed to doing. We are giving the Defence Force a strategic purpose. We are giving it direction. We are working closely with the Defence Force and cooperatively and well to improve the culture but there is a way to go because of the mess that was left by those opposite.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Herbert was continually interjecting during that answer on a warning and he will leave the chamber under 90 4A.