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

I thank the member for his question. Today, the Albanese government has announced the biggest review of Australia's defence estate in our country's history. As we face the most significant strategic circumstances since the end of World War II, the Defence Strategic Review made clear that we need to be investing more in our bases across our north and our west, and we are doing that. This is one example: we now have exquisite berthing capability at HMAS Coonawarra, in Darwin, which, last year, saw an aircraft carrier come alongside for the first time. We're engaged in an $8 billion redevelopment of HMAS Stirling in Rockingham in preparation for the Submarine Rotational Force—West.

But, as we focus on these investments, it's become clear that we need to look at the entirety of our defence estate. Defence is one of the biggest landholders in the country, and it is clear that much of that land is now beyond its useful life for Defence. We commissioned Jan Mason and Jim Miller, both experts in the field, to engage in an audit of the defence estate, and I want to thank them for their work. It was thorough and exhaustive, but in so many ways it was also damning. I will quote their report:

Defence is holding more property than it needs and is carrying the burden of past indecision to reorient the estate towards more contemporary and future needs.

It said:

Attempts to consolidate and rationalise property holdings in the past have been stymied by a lack of political and organisational will to overcome challenges.

And:

It is clear that maintaining the status quo is not an option.

Well, today we are garnering that political will to make the difficult decisions. I really want to thank the Assistant Minister for Defence, Peter Khalil, and the former assistant minister for defence, Matt Thistlethwaite, who have led the government's efforts in this area. Today we are announcing that we are agreeing in principle to all 20 recommendations of the Defence Estate and that includes the divestiture in full of 64 properties, the divestiture in part of another three, and every cent of that will be reinvested in defence capability.

But most importantly, we will stop wasting money on properties that we don't need. As just one example, in the last four years we've spent $4 million securing Spectacle Island in Sydney Harbour when we haven't had a member of the Defence Force on that site since 2023. These reforms will now focus the Defence Estate to be the foundation that the Defence Force needs in order for it to do its job to defend Australia.

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