Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker, for reining us in. We were formerly good colleagues on the PJCIS—and still are. But I will go to that point, because, since March 2023, we have seen tangible progress on a number of fronts and we recognise the significant investment that we've made. AUKUS is one of the greatest industrial endeavours Australia has ever undertaken, supporting industry, jobs and infrastructure over a number of decades, and it's an opportunity to build a future made in Australia by having Australians be involved in record numbers in defence, skills, jobs and infrastructure. It is a whole-of-nation undertaking.

That tangible progress is real. We've bridged that capability gap that we inherited, and we will acquire the conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines a decade earlier than the timeframe that we inherited. It will lift Australia into an elite group internationally, as one of only seven countries to operate a platform of this calibre and capability.

This year alone we announced the Geelong treaty between Australia and the UK, which will underpin bilateral cooperation and deliver the SSN-AUKUS. We've invested $480 million in our shipbuilding and submarine workforce, with the build of the skills and the training academy in South Australia. We built a new industry-led supply qualification program, with the largest military shipbuilder in the US, including Australian companies now qualified and entering the pipeline, and we've started an AUKUS submarine industry strategy.

In March last year, we announced the selection of ASC and BAE Systems to build Australia's SSN-AUKUS, and they are working in Osborne. I was there just recently. I saw the infrastructure build that's occurring. The 'getting on with it' is actually happening. We've seen that with jobs as well, with the Jobs for Subs program enabling around 200 new entry-level recruits from the ASC, to positions for graduates, apprentices and trainees in critical skills—in engineering, in electrical, in machining and fabrication trades and in project management. It's significant. It's happening. We are getting on with it.

All have you to do is to go down and visit the Osborne shipyards and you'll see the work in progress. As I said, I was there recently with Premier Malinauskas, as well as a number of US congressmen, looking at the work that's being done—over 4,000 jobs created in South Australia to build the infrastructure; an additional 4,000 to 5,000 jobs in the direct shipyard jobs as well, to create the build for the nuclear-powered submarines in South Australia. We have invested at least $2 billion in South Australia to support infrastructure. And this is happening in Western Australia as well. We're investing up to $8 billion to upgrade HMAS Stirling, creating around 3,000 direct jobs and ensuring 500 direct jobs for the Submarine Rotational Force West. There are about 200 entry-level positions in the ASC as well—upskilling those positions—and around 200 of our people over in Pearl Harbor are learning on the job about maintenance of the Virginia class.

Now, I know the opposition wants to play political games with defence spending and national security. Let's be really clear. This government has invested an additional $10.6 billion over the forward estimates and almost $58 billion over the decade in defence. We brought forward billions of dollars in our budget in March in the forward estimates as well. This is based on the work through the Defence Strategic Review as well as the National Defence Strategy, and we've gone through the proper processes. We are a government that decides what we spend on defence based on the capability needs that we have, and that's exactly what we're doing. We are committed to ensuring that our Defence Force capabilities meet the strategic challenges of the moment—of the time. And it's not about playing political football with this, because it's too important. We have had the largest increase in defence spending in peacetime since World War II. Some historians might want to correct me, but that is a fact, and you can't change those facts.

Over on the other side, the shadow defence minister at the time of the election, the member for Canning, was saying, about the coalition's position during the campaign, that it became 'very difficult' to talk about defence without a policy—without a policy. Senator Henderson said after the election campaign that it looked like they were talking about defence policy 'as an afterthought'. That's coming from their own members.

In conclusion, I will say this. Our job over the coming years is clear. We have a laserlike focus on ensuring that we make the commitments and investments in defence capability that we need to ensure the stability and security of the Indo-Pacific, our place in the world, and the prosperity that flows from that. We have a laserlike focus on that endeavour, and that's why we are delivering every day when it comes to AUKUS and our defence forces.

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