Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Having lived for some 11 or 12 years in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, a stone’s throw from Edinburgh Air Base, I have had contact with many serving defence personnel and their families. I know how loyal, dedicated and proud those service men and women, and also their wider families, are of their service to their country. Their whole families share in that commitment to the defence forces. Over the last few years we have seen more and more demanded of those Defence Force personnel. What happens with this government? Is this backed up by the same dedication and commitment by this administration? I think we had the answer when Senator Chris Ellison was asked about the critical rescue ship for submarines. He dismissed it, saying ‘it is a work in progress’. He could not give us an update or any detailed description of what is going to happen with getting the Remora off the ocean floor.

Can you imagine the feelings of Australian defence personnel and their families if a submarine actually went down while we were still waiting for that rescue ship to get off the ocean floor? Can you imagine how it would be for those families if they were told by the government: ‘We’ve made this arrangement with these overseas forces and, once they’ve got here, it’ll be all right’? It could be days before they arrive to rescue the service personnel out of that submarine stuck on the bottom of the ocean floor because they did not get around to it—it is just ‘a work in progress’; they did not get around to fixing the rescue ship that is languishing on the floor of the ocean. That is the kind of dedication and commitment we have from this administration to our defence personnel and their families. This is the kind of inaction and lack of activity that we have seen from the government in the past decade. There has been a series of failures in accountability and procurement. This is a very sad reflection on the government. It is a sad reflection of the value that they place on our defence service personnel and their families.