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

I thank Senator Reynolds for her question and join the enthusiastic queue sending congratulations to you, Mr President, on your appointment as President of the Senate. I thank the senator very much for the question, Mr President, because part of our engagement with the Philippines in recent times has been recognising the spread of Daesh in our region and the threat that it directs to Australia and to our interests. That is why, as a government, we are also committed to supporting the government of the Philippines to ensure that it is enabled to address the growing threat of terrorism in our region and indeed on its own shores. Australia acknowledges that the efforts that have been made to defeat the terrorists have come at great cost to the people of Marawi and to the armed forces of the Philippines, and we are committed to supporting the Philippines in this fight.

Last month, the Philippines Secretary of National Defense, Delfin Lorenzana, and I agreed to a range of new measures to increase our cooperation to ensure that the Philippines armed forces are able to defeat the challenges presented by Daesh-inspired terrorists and the like. ADF training teams are indeed now in the Philippines providing urban warfare counterterrorism training that builds upon the counterterrorism and counter-violent-extremism capabilities of the armed forces of the Philippines. I'm pleased to say, Mr President, that the first group of approximately 250 Philippines armed forces personnel completed the urban warfare training course just on Saturday, last weekend. This is the first of many groups that will participate in the training, helping to build the Philippines' long-term ability to counter terrorism threats and to fight these threats in a different context to what may have been their historic experience, particularly in relation to their skills in jungle warfare vis-a-vis urban warfare in this case. We value our longstanding and close defence relationship with the Philippines, and we are very committed to ensuring that we avoid the spread of terrorism.