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

It is notable that under Operation Manitou, the regional maritime security operations in the Middle East, where HMAS Warramunga is currently deployed, that warship and its crew have recently made their seventh narcotics intercept at sea, last week, bringing the total seized over the last few months to more than $1 billion worth of narcotics seized and destroyed. This very important work is destroying the terrorist model—the pirate business model—of using the drugs trade to fund their weapons, their explosives, their transport and their terrorist training camps. We should all be very proud of the work that the members of our ADF do every day while deployed on operations, and HMAS Warramunga is a good case in point. It is the 66th RAN vessel to deploy to the Middle East region since 1990, continuing our very proud history of supporting regional security. As part of the global coalition, the ADF has made a very valuable contribution to the campaign against Daesh. (Time expired)