Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

Nearly all of our explosives, yes. That part of the world has a big military footprint. We were able to go there as part of a Defence project being looked at by Public Works, which, as the name suggests, does not deal with top secret material. We were only dealing with military matters that are in the public domain.

I found out something that I hadn't realised about Australia when it came to the Australian contribution in World War II. The US paid for a lot of military input around the world in World War II. Countries had to pay back the United States after World War II. Obviously, they worked out some arrangements through the Marshall Plan where they were investing in democracies, trying to combat the rise of communism, throughout Europe in particular. But I hadn't realised that after World War II, whilst a lot of countries around the world owed the United States, the United States actually owed Australia money because of our significant military contribution.

Things have changed since then. The world still has a superpower like the United States, but it has become much more complex. We know that Australia is responsible for 11 per cent of the earth's surface with a population of less than 27 million. We're also seeing a global competition for resources. In fact, by any analysis, you would say that there's the greatest military build-up since World War II occurring right now. One of our major trading partners, if not our major trading partner, is part of that competition for resources. So we need to have a parliament that reflects the modern world and the challenges that come with that. We need a parliament that can examine Defence projects and Australia's defence strategy in greater detail, and to do so in a timely manner. We don't have time to wait for a steamboat to send a message out from the King back in Buckingham Palace. We now need to deal with the changing circumstances, things that can change in the blink of an eye.

The modern reality is we need to be able to do so in a secure environment, a classified setting where appropriate safeguards have been put in place—where phones are secure, where people can speak freely and where Defence officials or government officials can speak freely—and where the parliament can still do its job of scrutinising whatever that might be, whether that's a maritime project, a land project, an air project, a space project or a cyber project. We know that there are countries in that global competition that don't always respect our boundaries. Establishing the parliamentary joint committee on defence is a priority of the government, and we want to pass this legislation. We know that the money's already set aside for it. We want the parliamentary committee to become operational as soon as possible. Obviously, we still need to do all those normal things like diplomacy, deterrence and defence investment, but we also need to have that important part of a Westminster democracy which is parliamentary oversight.

This will give increased transparency, accountability and oversight into the defence portfolio. As I have noticed in the public works committee, there are significant amounts of money involved. Everything costs a lot in defence and not just because of the wedding-type prices that are handed out for anything to take place in defence. Establishing the committee builds on the first commitment of any government which is to keep Australians safe—and to do so in an atmosphere of transparency and accountability. We do so in the reality mapped out in a couple of reviews, but, particularly, I would like to thank Angus Houston and Stephen Smith for that strategic review. There are some scary things in that report. The reduced strategic warning time is obviously a big part of it. We don't have time just to sit around and send a drone over and see what's happening. Things can happen very quickly.

The culture of this proposed committee would be very much modelled on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which has effectively been running for a decade. It will do some of the defence related functions currently being undertaken by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, a committee I have been on for a long time. But, as I mentioned earlier, that committee doesn't have the capacity to see secure material. We have the money. We just have to get through the parliamentary process of establishing the committee, which is a committee that came out of a recommendation of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, a committee that has a lot of wise heads, heads that have corporate knowledge, both parliamentary and defence, and that benefits from those views. The committee undertook an inquiry into international armed conflict decision-making after being referred by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence. So we obviously need a committee that has that parliamentary oversight.

I do suggest to the opposition, who have always been happy to recommend to me that I cross the floor on a particular matter, that this is something where they can exercise their free will.

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