Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Astonishingly and infamously, they actually tried to do it. The Liberal Party think they have a brand advantage on national security, but that has made them lazy. Theirs is not a party of defence strategists; it's a party of defence dilettantes. If they ever did have a strategic advantage on national security, one achievement in the last decade is that those opposite totally and completely obliterated that. The country has moved on. This government has now removed the capability gap when it comes to our submarines. We have re-tasked our Defence Force for the first time in 35 years. We have got the defence budget back in order, focusing the defence spend on where defence needs it the most. We are serious people running a serious government, making serious decisions.

The proper reading of Australian history is that, when times have been difficult for our national security, Australians have always looked to Labor. The First World War, the Second World War, the Cold War—Fisher, Curtin, Hawke. As our country faces the most complex strategic circumstances since the Second World War, another Labor government, the Albanese government, is committed to keeping Australians safe.

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