Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the disadvantages of being the last speaker on a motion such as this is there have been so many good speeches prior to me that they've taken all the reasonable material that you can possibly be expected to say on this! I want to commend the member for Herbert. I have not served my nation in the armed forces, and I have an admiration and respect for those people who choose to voluntarily put their lives on the line so that this nation may continue to be a free and fair nation. Our freedom is a direct result of their sacrifice, not just those people who have served in the armed forces in this parliament but who have served in the armed forces throughout the ages. It is, indeed, the ultimate sacrifice that you can make. The member for Herbert has done that and, as the member for Moncrieff pointed out, at great personal sacrifice both to himself and to his family. That he chooses to serve his community and our nation now in this place is both a testament to him and a testament to this parliament.

The member for Stirling also has served our nation, incredibly admirably. I think the most extraordinary thing about the member for Stirling is the process he went through in applying to be a member of the Special Air Service, the SAS. The SAS was only expecting their usual attrition rates. They started off with 50 people, expecting only to have five or six left at the end of it. Unfortunately, in that particular batch, there were 14 people who made it through what sounds like hell on earth, if the truth be told. So he was drawn out of a hat and told that despite having gone through the process of the six or seven weeks of applying for the SAS he wouldn't be accepted, because too many people had done too well in that particular group. That, I think, is an extraordinary sacrifice. But his contribution to this debate cannot be easily forgotten, nor his contribution to our nation.

The member for Moncrieff, the member for Sturt and the member for Lyons have all pointed out the extraordinary benefits of this unprecedented growth, in peacetime, of expenditure on armed forces hardware. In my electorate, we have HIFraser, Universal Seals, North Sails and Incat Crowther, who have designed an incredibly innovative naval craft that is being used in the US. It is being built by Birdon, which is in the member for Lyons' electorate. The point the members for Moncrief and Sturt have both made is that it's not just the work and the number of people who get employed through this process that's important, it's the research, the design, the development of the intellectual property here in Australia. This program, this unprecedented build-up in military expenditure, is allowing those companies to do this.

One hastens to add that a lot of the intellectual property that Birdon has been able to develop in their $¾ billion contract with the US Navy has gone into their contract with Sydney Ferries, where they've developed new ferries here, in Australia, for public transport. So they will be combat ready, if ever they are needed to—that, of course, is not true. I just thought I'd throw that in. In any case—

See this speech in context