Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise on this matter of public importance debate on the importance of the AUKUS agreement and greater defence spending to Australia's security and prosperity, moved by the shadow minister for defence, the member for Hume. It is very important. I listened closely to the member for Bendigo, and she mentioned the Bushmaster. Indeed, she is correct—this is Australian manufacturing at its best. She talked about equipment, and she talked about sovereign capabilities. She didn't talk about people. They are our most important asset when it comes to our defence, and we need to lift dramatically the number of people that we have in Defence.

The member for New England will follow me, and I'm sure he will use his favourite phrase at the moment, which is that we need to get as strong as possible, as quickly as possible, when it comes to military matters. We do; we absolutely do. Indeed, with the Bushmaster, I cannot understand why this government, when the previous government made a commitment to providing Bushmasters to Ukraine, delayed that. They did. The Bushmasters were very slow in getting to Ukraine in their fight against the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. I cannot understand, also, why we outsourced our national security to a Virgin co-pilot. That particular pilot warned Australia about the Chinese navy circumnavigating our nation, firing test missiles very close to our open waters—our international waters. We saw a situation where China was just mocking us. It's simply not good enough.

AUKUS stands for Australia, UK and US. We have got to realise who our friends are at this important juncture in time—it's the most critical geopolitical situation we have faced since 1945. We heard the Minister for Defence, the Deputy Prime Minister, utter that pronouncement and he's right. So I cannot understand why he's in America at the moment and cannot get a meeting with his US counterpart, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. I would have thought that would have been prearranged before he actually stepped on the aircraft to fly to the United States.

It's critical that we meet with the US President. I've been closer to the US President this year—at the Pope's funeral—than has the Prime Minister. Indeed, I had a conversation with Sir Keir Starmer, the UK Prime Minister. I had a very good discussion with former US president Biden about trade and military matters while in Rome. It was quite a lengthy discussion. It beggars belief that our Prime Minister cannot get a face-to-face meeting with President Trump. This is important. I appreciate that members have mentioned HMAS Stirling in WA, the Henderson shipyard in WA and Osborne in South Australia. These are going to be very important naval shipbuilding and collaborative places to lift our military arrangements.

I'm very proud to come from a unique city, Wagga Wagga, where we have all three arms of Defence, which is unique for a regional inland centre. We've got the 'Home of the Soldier', Blamey Barracks, where we've got Colonel Gerard Kearns, who I believe has the most important position in the Army because he is leading the new recruits for our nation. If you spend any time in the Air Force, you'll end up at RAAF Base Wagga at Forest Hill, where air power begins here in Australia. Even though we're a long, long way from the nearest drop of seawater, we have an important military presence, as far as the Navy is concerned, which is in conjunction with RAAF Base Wagga. We are very proud of our military contribution to this nation in Wagga Wagga.

We need to lift our defence spending. We need to lift our profile and we need to make sure that we keep cohesion going. Today of all days, when we're kicking out—thank goodness—the Iranian ambassador, we've got a very dangerous situation building and we need to be very prepared. The price of peace is eternal vigilance.

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