Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the very first things that the Albanese Labor government did in its last term of office was the commissioning of the Defence Strategic Review by the Hon. Stephen Smith, himself a former defence minister, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston. The defence minister received that review in 2023 and described it, quite rightly, as the most ambitious review of our Defence Force and structure since the Second World War. Everything that has followed, including the surface fleet review, the National Defence Strategy and the Defence Industry Development Strategy, has pivoted from the Defence Strategic Review. As that National Defence Strategy reconfirms, we confront the most challenging strategic circumstances since the Second World War, and we do so at a time when Australia's economic connection with the world has never been greater.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has described the AUKUS agreement as the 'boldest strategic declaration of the 21st century'. To deliver on this declaration, the Albanese government has increased defence funding to record levels, and that includes record levels towards acquiring new capabilities for the ADF. This is the biggest peace-time increase in defence spending in Australia's history. Labor's 2025-26 budget included an additional $10.6 billion over the forward estimates and $57.6 billion over the decade in defence funding. Defence funding is currently at 2.04 per cent of GDP and will reach 2.36 per cent by 2033-34. Last financial year, Defence had spent $16.6 billion on acquisition, which is the highest on record by over $2 billion, and this financial year, 2024-25, we're on track to spend more than $17.4 billion on acquisition.

For reference: during the election, in particular, we heard those opposite talking about their own position looking like an afterthought. The member for Canning, at the time, said it was difficult to talk about defence at all during the campaign, because they had no policy. That is evidenced by their own MPI today, which they've had a good half an hour or more to speak on. There's probably been only one or two minutes actually on topic because they simply have nothing—no detail, no timelines and no idea of where their ideas for money will come from or where the money will be spent.

By contrast, for Western Australia we now have a sector that will be second only to the resources sector in terms of the billions—tens of billions, in fact—that will be spent on defence capabilities, creating nearly 5,000 direct jobs at the shipyards and 6,000 more for small to medium-sized businesses in support of the primes.

In addition to this, we will also see the establishment of the Defence Industry Skills Centre of Excellence at the south metro TAFE in Perth, which is underpinning the skill development needed to ensure that we have that sovereign capability to meet our defence industry needs. While at present a lot of the workers in the sector are in professional scientific and technical areas, we have now got a growing number of graduating skilled trades workers. They're gaining practical experience by being deployed at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in the US and will be returning to Henderson in due course to apply that new expertise and knowledge.

Many of the new WA defence related activities and industries are, in fact, close to the coast, but Hasluck has not been overlooked. In addition to announcing the recent Geelong treaty between Australia and the UK, which will underpin bilateral cooperation to deliver the SSN-AUKUS, and the $480 million investment in the shipbuilding and submarine workforce in SA, there's also a new industry led supplier qualification program with Huntington Ingalls Industries, or HII, the largest military shipbuilder in the US. What this means in a practical sense is that, for the first time, Australian companies are now qualified and are entering the pipeline.

I encourage the member for New England to come and visit Hasluck, because, if he had joined me, even just last week, to visit Hofmann Engineering with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, the Minister for Defence Industry and also our WA colleague the Hon. Paul Papalia, the state minister for defence industries, along with Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead and many others, he would have been there to hear the announcement that Hofmann Engineering is now the first qualified Australian company to receive a request for quote to supply its parts into the US supply chain. This is a historic moment for Hofmann Engineering but also for the country, as it's the beginning of Australian companies directly contributing to the global supply chain and preparing our country to make the parts necessary for submarines here and for the sustainment of submarines into the future.

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