Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Canning, the opposition defence spokesman, for this motion. As my colleague the member for Wills said before, it's pretty important that we have this defence review, a strategic one, to look at our capability, our circumstances, our force posture and what it is that we want the ADF and some of our other agencies to be able to do. As the Prime Minister has said:

It is incumbent on us … To take stock of the billions of dollars in defence investment programs, many of which are over-budget and delayed.

This is not a time for delay

A shining example of the coalition's track record can be seen in its botched handling of the Hunter class frigate procurement process, which is now facing major delays and soaring cost issues thanks to undefined equipment capability. Those opposite have mismanaged every step of the replacement of the Collins class submarine, a pretty important strategic capability. As a refresher, I note that the former Prime Minister and member for Wentworth signed a contract to buy 12 French Barracuda class submarines, but the terms of the contract were poorly defined to say the least. There's a bit of a trend here. The Australian taxpayer ended up forking out $3.5 billion to France before the contract was clumsily terminated. That's a lot of Black Hawks, which the member for Herbert was just speaking about. Who could forget the damage done to Australia's relationship with France, an important strategic partner in the Pacific, which led to the French President, Emmanuel Macron, stating baldly that the former Prime Minister, the member for Cook, had lied to him? It was a devastating blow for that relationship and for cooperation in the Pacific, but the honourable member needn't worry, because we've got those relationships back on track. The Deputy Prime Minister, on last week's visit to Europe, contributed to getting things back on track with the French but also established really good and important strategic relationships with the Germans and many others.

The delivery of the Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles is going to be delayed by another year, apparently, and that comes on the heels of a seven-month delay of the first Boxer delivery. Similar and serious delays have been forecast for the acquisition of the Arafura class patrol boats. Those opposite want to claim that, whilst in power, they made the ADF more agile, capable and nimble. Unfortunately, I didn't get here in time for the member for Canning's contribution, so I didn't get to hear the evidence that that's the case, but I look forward to having a listen later on.

The 1987 defence white paper established a strategic setting for this country for 35 years. Core to that was that we would have 10 years of warning. With the recent Defence Strategic Update, we know that we're well within that 10-year window, so we need a much greater sense of urgency, and I don't see that coming from the department. I know the defence minister will be working on that.

There's so much more work to be done to prepare for any potential future conflict in the coming years. Over the next month or so, we're going to have 14,500 troops from about 17 different countries training across the Top End. There will be fighters in the air, navies from all around the world operating in our seas and armies operating across the north. We're doing that for a reason, and a very important reason.

For those listening, don't forget that those opposite leased our port in Darwin for 99 years to a company strongly connected with the Chinese communist government. Never let them forget that. Honourable members will remember that their trade minister then took a job with that Chinese company. Everyone will remember that. Australians always ask me about it, wherever I go. In fact, an employee of that company recently belled the cat by saying on radio in the last couple of weeks—I couldn't believe my ears— (Time expired)

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