Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. I make the point again that this government will spend more money on defence in 2008-09 and across the forward estimates than any government has ever spent on defence in the history of Federation. We made a commitment to continue to fund defence spending growth by three per cent real. Originally we made that commitment out to 2016. We have now extended that to 2018 to give our defence planners a full decade on which to make base planning decisions, capability decisions and force structure planning decisions. We have now commissioned a white paper which, as I said earlier, will reveal our strategic circumstances, our force capability and all those things that go to ensuring that our Defence Force men and women have all the training, capability and protection they need to do their jobs as effectively, efficiently and, of course, as safely as is possible. The government’s plan for Richmond air base is exactly the plan which was held by the former government. I have had no discussions with Defence in any shape or form which would alter that future direction.

Defence Portfolio (Veterans’ Affairs)

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