Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Science) Share this | Hansard source

Last week's announcement of Labor's fire sale of more than 60 Defence sites was an absolute disgrace. The sale of these sites is nothing more than a way for the Deputy Prime Minister to raise funds to pay for the defence of our nation. The coalition maintains that defence spending should be at least three per cent of GDP. Labor clearly does not understand nor care about our nation's defence needs.

It beggars belief that, during Australia's most dangerous strategic environment since World War II, the Albanese government has failed to equip our men and women in uniform with the resources that they need to defend our nation. The number of training facilities that have been earmarked for disposal leads to the obvious question: where are you going to train our defence personnel? To quote retired Brigadier Ian Langford:

How do you recruit and retrain a workforce that is unable to serve in populated areas?

To make matters worse, this morning in Senate estimates, we've learned of the disrespect Labor have for our service men and women. It is incredibly disrespectful that the media found out about this fire sale of defence assets before our defence personnel. Maybe Labor thought it was going to be a good news story. Well, let me tell you, the defence community certainly does not think so.

To the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister: if you are looking to get more Defence funds for the defence of our nation, rather than selling off our heritage and our history, just fund Defence properly.

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