Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Canning for his question and acknowledge his work in representing the veterans in Western Australia. He certainly understands their issues and is in this place a very strong champion of their issues.

Operation Resolute is the ADF's contribution to Australia's civil maritime security in support of Operation Sovereign Borders. Around 350 ADF personnel support Operation Resolute. This figure may vary from time to time, depending on the number of assets that are deployed at any given time. Since 1999, a total of 26,000 of Australia's ADF personnel have deployed on border protection operations. What concerns me is that Labor's policies when they were in government effectively sent a green light to the people smugglers and had a real impact on the men and women of the ADF. Under Labor, the operational tempo was extreme, placing our personnel in danger and exposing them to horrific scenes.

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