Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Defence Legislation Amendment (First Principles) Bill 2015. The government commissioned the first principles review of Defence in 2014, the focus of which was to ensure that Defence is fit for purpose and is able to respond to future challenges and deliver against its output with the minimum resources necessary.

The government released the First principles review on 1 April 2015 and agreed to or agreed to in principle 75 of the 76 recommendations. The review found there were a proliferation of structures, processes and systems with unclear accountabilities, which, in some cases, caused institutionalised waste, delayed decisions, flawed execution, duplication, overescalation of issues for decision making and low engagement levels amongst employees in parts of the organisation. This is critical to the future of our Defence Force, the protectors of our nation.

One of the key recommendations of the review was to establish a strong strategic centre to strengthen accountability in top level decision making in Defence—I want to come back to that a bit later. The Chief of the Defence Force and the Vice Chief of the Defence Force will have ultimate power over the Defence Force. This bill formally recognises their authority. It gives full command of the Defence Force to the Chief of the Defence Force by removing any legislative limitations contained in the Defence Act 1903. It recognises the Vice Chief of the Defence Force as the deputy of the CDF and provides for service chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force to be subject to the direction of the CDF. This is all about strengthening the Defence structure in this nation to deliver greater capability.

There are also other subsequent matters to be repealed, but I want to particularly focus on a couple of issues in my local area. Since 1996, when I entered this parliament, whenever I have not been a member of the executive of the government, I have been a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. In particular, I take an active interest in the defence subcommittee. I am a strong advocate and a very strong supporter of Defence and defence industries in my electorate and, in fact, in the whole Hunter. In the neighbouring electorate, there is the home of Singleton Army base. In the neighbouring electorate of Newcastle, there is the Williamtown RAAF base, which was once in the electorate of Paterson. At the Williamtown RAAF base, we have the FA18 and the Hawk lead-in fighter, which was actually assembled at Williamtown. It is also the home of the advanced early warning aircraft, and it is soon to be home of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter. Currently, there is a base redevelopment to the value of around $1 billion to accommodate the Joint Strike Fighter, and that flows on to our local economy through increased jobs.

Defence industry is a critical employer in my area, and it is reflected in the economic contribution to our Hunter region. But there is an underlying need to reduce tendering costs, to speed up approvals and to avoid scope creep, in particular, for small to medium enterprises. That is why, when I spoke about the requirement for accountability to the CDF, we now have a one-stop shop for all of the problems. There can be no more passing the buck. Last week, I raised these issues on Defence contracting in the defence subcommittee of the parliament with Mr Kim Gillis, the new deputy secretary of the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, CASG, which has replaced the old DMO.

I welcomed the news last week that Forgacs's engineering, shipbuilding and defence divisions are to be acquired by Civmec. This will spread Civmec's footprint and give greater certainty and more opportunities to the future of shipbuilding and Defence contracting across our region. I well remember working with the late founder of Forgacs, Steven Forgacs, and his acquisition of the Tomago shipyard from the Australian Submarine Corporation in 1996 to ensure a shipbuilding future for the region. I worked with him and the then former head of DMO, Stephen Gumley, to ensure that air warfare destroyer modules would come to our region. That is but one of many companies in the Hunter. Varley Engineering at Tomago is another outstanding local, private company that is headed by Jeff Phillips and engaged in Defence projects—in particular, the delivery of the Joint Strike Fighter ground support equipment components and the development and design of unique specialty engineering solutions for military vehicles and integrated military shelters. Their work on LAND 121 with Mercedes and Rheinmetall is delivering jobs to our region.

Bohemia Interactive Simulations at Nelson Bay is headed by Ryan Stephenson. This is a global software company leading the world on military simulation training solutions for tactical military training. These unique and highly accredited war game strategy programs have been adopted by militaries across the world. Bob Cowan's Cowan Manufacturing in the southern part of the region at Warners Bay has developed an international reputation with navies across the world for his high-tech specialised recompression chambers, which not only have won Australian design awards but also are accredited by the Australian and US navies. C-E Solutions, headed by Boris Novak, is also located at Nelson Bay. It is a systems engineering surveilling and control specialist team that has delivered defence solutions, not only for Australia but across the world, with mobile surveillance platforms and weapon impact scoring systems. Partech Systems at RAAF Williamtown is a leader in the development of test program sets for military avionics equipment, working on platforms such as the FA18 Hornets, Seahawks and the Joint Strike Fighter program. At Cardiff, there is Puzzle Precision, a specialist, Defence-accredited, high-tech electronics assembly firm working on unique and specialised circuit boards. Around the corner from my home at Thornton, the team at ATSA Defence Services develop, test and maintain remote operated vehicles, an underwater system critical in mine warfare. Then of course there are BAE, Lockheed Martin and Boeing facilities at Williamtown RAAF base. This is to name but a few innovative Defence contractors and support specialists that have expanded and utilised the specialist skills in the region to establish the Hunter as one of the leaders in their field, not just nationally but internationally. I also commend Ian Dick and the team at Hunter Defence in promoting the skills and the opportunities our region can provide to a growing Defence presence in the Hunter. As I said earlier, there is an expansion of Williamtown RAAF base to accommodate the Joint Strike Fighter program—an investment of over $1 billion.

As the CDF now has absolute power over the Defence Force, and absolute responsibility, the next issue I want to raise lies with him as the person at the top. I know he is showing a great interest in it.

The biggest issue I have to deal with is the PFOS contamination, the firefighting foam contamination, which is leaking from Williamtown RAAF base. I have raised this issue here in the parliament before, and I acknowledge the presence in the chamber of Assistant Minister for Defence, Darren Chester. Last Friday, I met with Professor Ravi Naidu, Chair of Global Innovation and Director of the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation based at Newcastle University. He is a world leader in dealing with cleaning up contaminated messes like that of PFOS at Williamtown. Professor Naidu is also CEO and Managing Director of the Cooperative Research Centre on environmental remediation. Professor Naidu is already undertaking remediation works at other defence facilities, so I ask the question—and it is pertinent that the assistant minister is here: why hasn't he been contracted to start work at Williamtown? This is one of a number of possible solutions to the problem to be explored. After my meeting on Friday, I referred Professor Naidu to Air Vice Marshal Greg Evans—Defence's lead person for this issue in the region. I will also be raising it at a meeting that I am hoping to procure later today or tomorrow with my colleague Darren Chester, to follow-up on our discussions last week. I will not let this issue go. We require action—urgent action.

It is important, first of all, to make sure that we have safe, potable water for my constituents to drink and to give to their animals. I know that Defence are filling tanks and providing water bottles to people. But I have also put forward the suggestion to the assistant defence minister that perhaps we need to engage Hunter Water, who have been vocal about this issue, to provide town water mains through that region. The main pipeline goes right past these affected properties. There are some in the community who are saying, 'We don't want town water,' but a lot of my constituents are raising with me that they do want it, because they want safe, potable water. The other thing that needs to occur is the stopping of the contamination—and it needs to be stopped very quickly. There are many ways to do this, and some of them are discounted by experts in Defence but they need to think outside the square. There needs to be a levee built around Lake Cochrane. The water in it needs to be drained and cleaned and the contaminated soils contained in Lake Cochrane excavated and stockpiled. There is an opportunity to deal with this waste with the Hunter being home to some of the largest open cut mines in Australia. Some of these pits are hundreds of metres deep. There is no reason that contaminated soil and water could not be buried deep in that area rather than them going through an expensive treatment process. The soil would be buried under millions of tonnes of dirt. It would never reach the surface and there are no aquifers through these coalmines. We need to clean up not just Lake Cochrane but also the Dawsons and Moors drains. That can be done in part by excavating the soil around the sites and removing it from the sites. This will not eliminate but it will reduce the immediate flow-on effect of the PFOS continuing down the drain.

We need to provide support—total support—to my community. We need to look after their health. There has been a call for blood testing. As I have said publicly, there is no reason that New South Wales department of health cannot organise blood collection where people require it—whether that is the Tomago hospital, the Maitland Hospital or the John Hunter Hospital—and then have these blood tests analysed by the National Measurement Institute. This will give people peace of mind. The community is calling for it. They are not responsible for this contamination but they have been the recipients of it.

There is also the issue of the prawn and fishing trawlers who have had a ban placed on them since 3 September. That ban goes through to June 2016. I acknowledge that the government has provided income relief through a fortnightly payment of $523. The government has also provided a $5,000 one-off grant to affected businesses, as well as $20,000 over five instalments to help meet the ongoing costs of maintaining the survival of these businesses. These people have lost a lot more than that. I think the government needs to rethink the package and provide greater support. There are not only the prawn trawlers. There are also the egg producers and the beef producers whose products are restricted from going to market. There is also the stigma or the perception surrounding any product that comes from that region. We need to do what we can and as quickly as we possibly can to restore the lifestyles and the security of property to those affected constituents in my electorate.

The most pressing issue—and I have taken a number of calls on this recently—is the mental anguish that people are going through. For those whose bore or water supply tests positive with PFOS—and I do note that, of the 45 tests that have been conducted by Defence, only seven have proved positive—their mental anguish is supreme. Not knowing what you do not know is a major part of the problem. The New South Wales department of health put out one set of fact sheets in relation to this issue and then the Chief Scientist, Mary O'Kane, put out contradicting evidence. There needs to be a single, clear line of communication, an explanation of the facts and a plan and a program put forward about what can be done, what will be done and in what time frame it will be done.

This bill gives ultimate power to the Chief of the Defence Force. As he was once based at Williamtown, he knows the issues there very, very well. I ask for his personal intervention, along with that of the assistant minister, to make sure that we provide a solution to this problem in quick time, not long time. I commend this bill to the House.

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