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

I thank the member for her question. The simple facts are that, at the beginning of 2022, the Australian Defence Force was in numerical decline. Under the coalition, the annual separation rate at the ADF had grown to a whopping 11.2 per cent. At the same time recruitment was in the doldrums, and what that meant was that in the last two years of their government, the Defence Force shrunk by 1,400 personnel. Yet at the same time their government provided a fanciful and grandiose announcement of increasing the Defence workforce by more than 18,000 personnel, an announcement which came with a massive price tag and, unsurprisingly and correspondingly, a massive, allocated funding deficit. Because the most arid, deserted, friendless place for Defence spending was the Liberal Party Expenditure Review Committee. The truth is that, the record in government on defence spending under those opposite was an absolute disgrace

In the last three years and more, under our government, we have dramatically turned that situation around, and I would like to pay credit to the Minister for Defence Personnel. From our very first budget, we increased the Defence offering, focusing on housing, then focusing on family benefits, then focusing on improving wages in areas of skilled workforce shortage and then focusing on improving and increasing retention bonuses. All of that has meant that, today, the separation rate for the ADF has fallen to 7.7 per cent, below the long-term average. At the same time, we are now finding young Australians where they are—

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