Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) | Hansard source

No, it could never happen, Member for Paterson! It could never happen! Well, do you know what? It is exactly the reason why this government is allowing for the appointment of crossbenchers to this committee.

There is no justification. The Greens will never form government in their own right. They'll only do that with the Labor Party. Independents will never form government in their own right. It is only the members of parties of government who should sit on this vitally important committee that will oversee the AUKUS arrangement, the largest defence procurement project ever undertaken by this government, at a time of the most geopolitical instability. It is the greatest instability since 1945, a time when government and opposition of either flavour need to work together to defend this nation. The PJCIS, which I've served on as the deputy chair, has never leaked in its 30-odd years of being in existence—not once. No member has leaked, because they knew, if they leaked, guess what? They'd go to jail. If they go to jail, it destroys their political career. Do you know what? I can't say the same about the Greens. It is the Greens' political manifesto that they want to abolish the ANZUS Treaty. They want to do crazy things, like remove joint military bases with the United States. That means no more rotational marine force in Darwin. It means no rotational submarine forces in the west, with either the UK or the United States. It means no more Pine Gap. It means no more North West Cape.

Looking at the importance of these military bases, not just to the United States but to the defence of this country, these arrangements have been in place for decades as a bipartisan arrangement that has secured the defence of this nation. The government's willingness to water down the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence is of great concern. It will impact upon our very alliances with the United States and the United Kingdom at a time which is most dangerous. At a time when we need to gather together our friends and allies, the government, through this bill, and through wanting to allow crossbenchers to sit on this committee, fundamentally weakens our position and makes us vulnerable.

The bill itself is common sense. It's a good development and it should be encouraged. I want to extol and encourage those members opposite, in the government, when the member for Canning, the shadow defence minister, moves his motion to restrict members of the defence committee just to those from the parties of government, to accept that they got it wrong—to accept that national security should not be politicised and to accept that the defence of this country is so important that it shouldn't be traded as a political bargaining tool with the Greens to garner support for a minority Labor government. That's what this is all about: the willingness of the government to water down this bill and this defence committee by including the crossbench will do nothing other than make this country more vulnerable and subject to risk than it already is. Our foes—and, yes, we have foes—are watching this very, very closely. We cannot weaken on this point. I want to encourage those opposite to rethink their position on this. It's a commonsense approach. Don't weaken it for the sake of political expediency.

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