Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

That's right, Senator Shoebridge, not in Defence. Apparently they walk free. There's nothing to see here. It doesn't want someone on its issues.

The minister—let's be honest here—is just following the CDF, the secretary and senior officers around like a lost puppy. It is absolutely sickening. All you hear is the little bell around his neck ringing. He is more clueless on defence than any minister before him—and I can tell you that there have been a lot of clueless ones since I have been here. This one takes the cake. He spends his days swallowing everything that they tell him—starry eyed and tipsy from being in the presence of medals that the senior officers didn't even earn. Deputy Prime Minister Marles is letting ADF senior command walk over the top of him. It is an absolute embarrassment. You probably need to sack him and start leading by example. Our national security is suffering for it. You talk about your concern for national security, but, if anything is suffering, it is that, and you will pay the price for that. There is no doubt about that.

The defence minister is not strong. He's not even close. He's not the type of person the Australian Defence Force needs. Australia needs a minister that will stand up to the CDF and the secretary and not just do what they say. As I've said, the Defence Force can't deliver anything right now, and I don't hold much hope for it delivering anything in the future. The senior officers are behaving like career bureaucrats and their focus is completely off target. If they spent as much time fixing broken things as they do avoiding hard questions, we'd surely be in a much better state than we are today. But they don't.

Australia deserves better than the CDF, the secretary and the minister, who avoid scrutiny and have absolutely no future plans except for a paper submarine. That's all we're looking at—a paper submarine. There are paper dreams for a submarine that doesn't exist. We have a land war in Europe, and the Middle East is heating up in a way that we haven't seen in a long time. Australia needs a government that is focused on the job of protecting Australians. We're not getting that. Instead, we're getting submarines that will never arrive. We're getting an army that is losing more people, and that's during their billion-dollar recruitment drive. They're spending millions and millions of dollars on a recruitment drive and still not recruiting anyone.

You have a problem here: it is called the top brass, and the first one is the CDF. Until you fix this, and until you get rid of these people, you will get no better results. I don't get why you don't understand this. We've got a CDF who blames everyone but himself for everything and anything. If he's wondering who is to blame, it's about time he really took a good hard look at himself in the mirror. We've got a secretary who is just a plain career public servant who has been in there for way too long—way too long. And, worse: we're paying them over a million bucks each—a million bucks each, to deliver absolutely nothing, let alone to put our national security first and foremost.

On top of that, their diggers are getting a real pay cut. This is when we talk about 'unique service'. Because they do not have a union, they are getting the same pay rise as the public servants! You want to stand there at a cenotaph and talk about thanking them for putting their lives on the line in their unique service, but you don't want to pay them any more than public servants. And you wonder why they're leaving in droves! How disrespectful is that. Australians deserve more. We deserve a lot more.

In a world of conflict and natural disasters, we have never ever needed our Australian Defence Force more. I'll bet you this summer you'll be calling them out. Yes, you'll be calling them out and expecting them to deliver. And, in the same breath, you'll want them to sit on a pay rise of 11.2 per cent over three years, as if they were in the Public Service. But you want them to feel special. You've got to be kidding me! Maybe they should have their own union. Would that help? Maybe then we could better deals with the Labor government than we can today. They need their own union. Would that help? Let me know. I'll get them one.

Australia's Defence Force leadership is more focused on protecting themselves than us. We must fix this, and the minister and the Prime Minister are the only ones who can get the job done. It's way past time they got on with it.

I can assure you, I'm sick of seeing this new defence minister running round like he's a groupie at a concert, in front of the brass. You will never ever be able to rein in senior command when you are doing that. He is completely out of his depth. He hasn't had control from the time he came in here and he hasn't got control now. You want to do a reshuffle next year? Try someone new. Quite frankly, if you want our Defence Force to be better, then they'll need to respect not only senior command but the minister, and he has none. You've lost the fight with that minister. He needs to go. If you do not get rid of the Chief of Defence Force, they will continue to leave in droves. Something has to give. Someone has to have the guts to say, 'Mate, it's time you left. Either you retire or we will remove you.' You have a secretary sitting there in the Department of Defence. My god! If he was any more stale, he would be mouldy, for god's sake! He's got to go! You need a whole new reshuffle in there. You need new people in there who can actually make decisions and are not scared of the brass standing in front of them. Until you do this, our national security will remain at risk. Once again, it can't get the job done. It can't deliver anything. You have a real problem here. But, once again, these two words are the most important thing: 'national security'.

And it's retention. You've got to retain these people. I mean, this is how stupid you are: you want to offer 50 grand to people to say, 'Hey, you've done four years; stay in.' But what did those diggers sitting there between the five-year mark and the 10-year mark get asked? What did you promise them if they stayed in? You promised them absolutely nothing. That's right—you promised them the same pay rise as the Public Service. And you wonder why they're leaving in droves. You can't be serious with me. It is so disrespectful for these senior diggers to not be offered a damn thing. And they're leaving in droves. Therefore, you leave a massive gap of expertise in our Defence Force. Do you understand that? It is expertise. They are leaving. It takes five or six years for a digger to find their feet. In the meantime, you're driving those ones of between five and 10 years out the door. Okay, there is your problem.

I have tried to speak to Minister Marles about this and I have told him how to fix this. He hasn't listened to a damn word I've said. That was six months ago. As a matter of fact, it's got to a point where I don't even bother going and seeing him, because he'll end up taking himself out; he doesn't need me, to be brutally honest with you.

But enough is enough. This is our national security. We need people joining. We need them to start joining today. And a billion bucks ain't getting them there.

Money from here is not buying them. It's not buying them, and you're offering nothing to keep the ones that we need—the ones with the most expertise, the ones who've actually had war experience. There's a massive gap there. They way you are doing it is very wrong. Start putting some commonsense into this, once and for all, for the sake of our national security.