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

I need to draw to the attention of the chamber yet again—because I did this on a previous occasion when Senator Whish-Wilson chose to misrepresent our engagement as part of the command maritime force in the Middle East with other countries, including Saudi Arabia, as an exercise activity—that, indeed, it is important for vessels that are working together in a combined maritime force to engage in familiarisation processes to ensure that they are able to deal with emergencies and are able to deal with crises in a ready manner and have some familiarity with each other's activities. That was the purpose, as I said, of the opportunity taken at the time of the vessels being in the same place at the same time.

I've been through the process by which military exports, defence exports, are considered. The reflection of our international obligations, including the Arms Trade Treaty, the assessment against those international obligations, human rights, national security, regional security and foreign policy questions are brought to bear in all of those considerations. (Time expired)