Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corio for giving me the opportunity to respond to some of his specific questions. I won't respond necessarily to his rhetoric—I don't want to embarrass the opposition any more than I already have—but he asked some serious questions and they deserve serious answers.

In terms of women in the Defence Force and the APS, I can tell him that, as at 1 March 2018, 10,190 of ADF members, or 17.5 per cent—up from 16.2 per cent in March 2017—are women, which is good news. So the number of women in the ADF has increased. In terms of the Australian Public Service and the Department of Defence, for the same period, 7,772, or 42.1 per cent—up from 41.6 per cent in March 2017—are women, which is a small increase of 143. I would make the general observation that I agree with him that there need to be a lot more women across defence industry.

The member for Corio and I have been at many conferences and events over the last couple of years where it's very apparent that the workforce behind the Defence Force is very top heavy with men. One of the important contributions we can all make is to keep encouraging women to take up roles in the Defence Force, the Public Service, which is not tracking too badly, and, importantly, the defence industry. One of the purposes of the 'Workforce Behind the Defence Force' campaign, which the government will conclude at the end of June, is to encourage women, and young people generally, to see a career in the defence industry as a worthwhile pursuit in which to use their talents and skills. There was a weighting towards supporting women, through the type of campaign we ran, in order to encourage them to believe that it should be part of their career planning.

The issue of sexual misconduct in the ADF is a very significant one that the member for Corio has raised. There have been stories recently about an increase in sexual misconduct in the ADF. It's a vexed issue for any government. It's not a partisan issue. In order to ensure that the member for Corio has a comprehensive response, I will take that question on notice and undertake to write to him and outline what the government has been doing, particularly in the Minister for Defence Personnel's and the Minister for Defence's part of the portfolio. I will undertake to respond to him with the assurance that it will be treated seriously.

Another question the member for Corio raised was about the offshore patrol vessels contract and Austal's role in it. As he would know, Austal teamed with Fassmer in that tender and provided a vessel that was not deemed to be superior to the Luerssen-Civmec-ASC tender. Even though that was the case, the government, in its NSC decision, in awarding the contract to Luerssen, ASC and Civmec asked that Austal be included, if possible, on commercial terms in the delivery of that contract. As it happens, despite the government's best intentions, that wasn't able to be brought about on commercial terms, and the parties have gone their own way.

Luerssen and Civmec have formed a consortium called AMSEG, the Australian Maritime Shipbuilding and Export Group—not exactly catchily named, but nevertheless it certainly conveys its role—and that will help with the ASC build of the first two offshore patrol vessels in Osborne and then the next 10 in Henderson. Of course, we will be working, as I am working very hard right now, to try and secure export contracts for the offshore patrol vessels project in order to extend that even further and support the workforce at Osborne, in particular, but also at Henderson.

The member for Corio asked about the Defence Export Advocate. I think David Johnston is an excellent choice as the Defence Export Advocate. He was my choice, of course, so I would say that. He's being paid as an eminent Australian because he is an eminent Australian, having spent two decades in the Senate as a cabinet minister and minister in two governments—the Howard government and the Abbott government. He knows the area extremely well, and I'm sure the member for Corio knows that. I can tell the member for Corio that there is a band in which he could be paid, and he elected to be paid at the lowest level possible. That only confirms my sensible choice and the fact that he is doing this job obviously for remuneration but also because he believes in the government's Defence Export Strategy.

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