Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hasluck for both her service and the question. The government will always support the men and women who proudly wear our uniform to keep Australians safe, investing in our capability and investing in our relationships. On Friday, I will be in Jakarta seeing that through, signing a landmark security agreement with Indonesia. But we also need to support defence forces at home, making sure that every single dollar that's spent makes a difference to defending our nation, builds on our record defence funding and focuses our capacity where it's needed.

Now, we commissioned an independent review into our Defence estate to investigate how to do just that. It's clear that there are significant opportunities to do things a better way. Defence owns a significant estate that is simply not being used at all or, in some cases, is just underused. Big buildings on big plots of land are sitting half empty seven days a week, and Defence has a full-time job maintaining them. From a personnel and also an assets perspective, that simply doesn't make sense, and it's not an efficient use of that land either. Many barracks and buildings sit on land that was gazetted for use well before Federation, and they serve a purpose more fitting for that time, frankly, than they do for today. So we are taking action to maximise our defence capability. The Commonwealth will sell 64 Defence estate sites across the nation and invest all proceeds back into defence, supporting our Defence Force personnel, making sure that our Defence estate is fit for purpose but also creating opportunities for urban development for green spaces and housing in our cities. It is about making sure the men and women who keep us safe can do just that.

This is a win-win-win. It is a win for the nation's defence. It is a win for opportunities when it comes to housing. But it's also a win for ensuring that economic efficiency comes through, that we don't have estates just sitting there, costing money to be maintained, serving no purpose in either being used by our Defence Force personnel or in defending our nation. This is a sensible way forward, and I thank the Minister for Defence and Assistant Minister Khalil for the extraordinary amount of work that has gone into this. This is a sensible reform going forward.

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