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

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. How is the Albanese Labor government supporting Australia's critical defence industrial base? Why is this so important after a decade of neglect?

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for his question and for his interest in matters of defence—

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

Minister, your mic isn't on, so please pause for a moment while we make sure of recording and sound from broadcasting. I invite the minister to continue.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For the last year, the government has been pursuing the largest defence export deal in the history of Australia. I'm delighted to inform the House that last Thursday the German parliament approved the acquisition of 100 Boxer heavy-weapon carriers, to be supplied by the Australian government—

A government member: Hear, hear!

Absolutely! They're to be made Rheinmetall in Ipswich, in the member's own electorate. As a result, I've signed a government-to-government agreement with my German counterpart to deliver these vehicles. As I said, this is the biggest defence export deal ever, worth over a billion dollars. It's supporting 600 direct jobs at Rheinmetall and hundreds in a supply chain that involves 300 local companies. And it's not just the dollars; it's about us exporting very advanced military vehicles manufactured here. This is what we mean by a future made in Australia.

This export deal didn't happen by itself; it was the result of 12 months of hard work from a team all the way up to the Prime Minister, who advocated hard for this in Berlin and who signed an in-principle agreement. It required a Defence team engaging with their German counterparts at speed, and it required Rheinmetall and their hardworking staff to step up enthusiastically. But not everyone backed the deal, I'm ashamed to say. Surely not? The shadow defence minister, in July, took real glee in claiming that the export deal was dead. Unlike him, those on this side believe in Aussie industry. We believe in 100,000-plus defence industry workers. We believe in a future made in Australia and we'll fight for it every day. This is important, due to the decade of neglect under the coalition—a decade of neglect, where one coalition defence minister said he wouldn't trust South Australian workers to build a canoe. It was a decade of neglect where a coalition cabinet that the opposition leader was a member of tried to send the submarine contract to Japan.

It's vital that we support the Australian defence industry base because it's a fundamental input to the ADF. That's why the government has released a new Defence Industry Development Strategy, and we're backing it up with a $41 billion increase in the defence budget to deliver the capabilities the ADF needs. The Australian Defence Force needs all our support and the Albanese Labor government believes in a future Australia. Those opposite just want to talk Australian industry down while they cut the defence budget.