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

I thank Senator Reynolds very much for her question. As she is well aware, Australia is very strongly committed to strengthening our ability to work with both our regional partners and allies to ensure the long-term prosperity and stability of the Indo-Pacific region. Currently, for example, the Royal Australian Air Force's Exercise Pitch Black is underway in the Northern Territory. That exercise brings more than 4,000 personnel and 140 aircraft from 17 nations from around the Indo-Pacific and further afield. There was a fabulous open day in Darwin last weekend, as I'm sure Senator Scullion was aware, which was attended by thousands and thousands of visitors. It is our largest and most complex air exercise, and it's a very important opportunity for us to improve our ability to work with those partners, allies and neighbours.

Like Pitch Black, Exercise Kakadu will also be held in the Top End, beginning at the end of this month. It will bring together 27 nations from our region and beyond. Importantly, Exercise Kakadu will include a number of smaller nations from the Pacific, including the Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea, as well as larger allies and partners from across the region.

These are exercises which build mutual understanding, cooperation and interoperability in the region through training exercises and dialogue. They follow on from our very successful recent participation as the second-largest participant in the US-led RIMPAC exercises in Hawaii, which I know Senator Reynolds and others in the chamber and in the other place attended, in which over 1,600 ADF personnel participated with four ships, a submarine and a P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft.

And, of course, the Indo-Pacific Endeavour task force 2018, which participated in RIMPAC, is now heading back into the Pacific to the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and a number of other locations. This demonstrates our ability to work very effectively with our regional partners and neighbours. (Time expired)