Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Fawcett very much, both for his question today and for his career-long interest in matters defence. I also acknowledge that today is the commemoration of Remembrance Day. Mr President, you and the Leader of the Opposition and a number of other members of the Senate and the House of Representatives attended at the War Memorial today for that very special observation with their Royal Highnesses and His Excellency the Governor-General.

I am very pleased to be able to respond to Senator Fawcett and to announce that the eighth and final C-17A Globemaster III was officially accepted into service last week by the Minister for Defence Materiel and Science, Minister Brough, at RAAF Base Amberley. What the arrival of the eighth C-17A will ensure is that our Air Force has sufficient capability to provide vital heavy airlift to a range of global military operations and greatly increase Australia's capacity to respond and provide disaster relief and humanitarian aid in particular. Senator Fawcett is correct when he identifies that it was the Howard government, under former Minister for Defence, Dr Brendan Nelson, the now director of the War Memorial, in fact, that identified the need for this particular capability and ordered the first four C-17s in 2006. That acquisition has been progressively increased by successive governments. The C-17A has three times the carrying capacity of the Hercules C-30. They are able to carry up to 77 tonnes. That means that they can transport four Bushmaster vehicles at once or three Black Hawk helicopters, which is a very impressive capability.

As well as the two additional C-17s, the coalition has already committed to purchasing the P-8A Poseidon aircraft, the Triton unmanned aerial vehicles and a further 58 joint strike fighters. In 2015-16, the coalition government is investing $7.2 billion in defence equipment—nearly double the amount Labor spent in their disastrous 2012-13 budget, in which they cut defence spending to the lowest level as a percentage of GDP since 1938. (Time expired)