Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to put forward a simple proposition to Australians when they think about our armed forces. We call them defence forces, and the word 'defence' comes to mind. Would you prefer to have your serving personnel in your armed forces geared to going on foreign adventures and fighting foreign wars—as we have essentially done for the last 15 to 20 years very closely joined at the hip to the United States, our allies in the ANZUS treaty, including in the longest-running conflict in our nation's history in Afghanistan, and we've obviously seen some of the complications that have arisen from that in recent times—or would you prefer to have your personnel geared up to help fight the biggest threat to our national security?