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

I thank the member for her question and congratulate her on her election to this House. It was a joy to join her recently at the Redcliffe RSL. Her question is an important one as our defence force is engaging in its most important exercise, Talisman Sabre 2025. At the end of May and beginning of June I attended the annual Shangri-La defence dialogue in Singapore, and about a month ago I represented Australia at the NATO leaders summit at The Hague. Albeit the Indo-Pacific, albeit the North Atlantic—what is clear is that we are living in a more volatile world with increasing challenges, ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. What this demands of us is crystal clear, strategic clarity for our nation.

For many years, defence policy in our country was characterised by just doing what we always did, which is actually a description of strategic drift. But, from the moment that we came to office in 2022, we implemented the Defence strategic review. We handed down the first national defence strategy; the second will be handed down in the next 12 months. This is giving a clear articulation of our strategic threat and the kind of defence force that we need to build to meet it. We need a defence force which will give pause for thought for any potential adversary which seeks to coerce us. We need a defence force which will make Australia's contribution to the collective security of the region in which we live. That means that we need a defence force with greater capacity to project a long-range submarine capability, which we are delivering through AUKUS; a more capable surface fleet; a more mobile army; longer range missiles; and an air force which can project from our northern bases.

We are a long way down the track of putting all of that in place. This has involved significant reprioritisation of the Defence budget and difficult decisions, but the consequence is much greater quality in our defence spend and a much more potent defence force as a result. It has also seen the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending in Australia's history. Relative to what we inherited from those opposite, it's an additional $58 billion over the decade, $11 billion over the forward estimates. In the here and now, over the last two financial years, Defence has spent more on procurement than ever, the bulk of which has gone to Australian defence industry, supporting defence jobs. This government is, amidst all the noise, delivering a thoughtful, sober and serious plan to keep Australia safe.

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