Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

The 2018-19 budget maintains the government's commitment to provide Defence with a stable and sustainable funding growth path, with the defence budget growing to two per cent of GDP by 2020-21. The government are confident defence funding is sufficient to execute our plans for defence and to protect our nation's security and prosperity. Before we came to power, Labor reduced the defence budget to 1.56 per cent of GDP, the lowest level since 1938. Over the next decade, from 2018-19, the $200 billion Integrated Investment Program demonstrates the government's commitment to creating a more potent and capable Defence Force through programs such as the continuous naval shipbuilding program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and the purchase of a fleet of new combat reconnaissance vehicles to protect our troops.