Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Last week, Australians learnt sobering news that an Iranian projectile struck near the Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE, where Australian Defence Force personnel were stationed. An accommodation block was damaged. A medical facility was damaged, and while, thankfully, no Australian personnel were injured, the message to this parliament could not be clearer. The world is becoming more dangerous and faster than this government is acting.

This is not theoretical. This is not strategic abstraction. This is not a line in a white paper. This is an Australian linked base under attack. And yet, at precisely the moment our servicemen and women face rising risk, Labor continues to tell the Australian people that what they are doing is enough. It is not enough. While Labor boasts about headline announcements, the reality is this: defence spending remains stuck at around two per cent of GDP. It is at 2.05 per cent in the 2025-26 budget. Even in the government's own long-term trajectory, it only reaches over 2.3 per cent by 2034. In a far more dangerous world, this is not urgency; this is drift, and Australians know it.

The Port Macquarie RSL subbranch recently wrote to its local federal member, warning of deep concern about defence spending and recruitment. They said that members fear we will not have the resources to procure the armament required for modern warfare, and they are calling for a much stronger national commitment. They also raised concern about the ongoing fallout from the Brereton report and the way that it's been handled. They warned that public demonisation of serving personnel has harmed morale, damaged esprit de corps and undermined recruitment. Those concerns are real. Those concerns are justified, and they are not isolated.

RSL Australia has publicly called for the government to immediately lift defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, and then to three per cent within 12 months, warning that Australia needs a balanced force, stronger recruitment and retention and more investment in defence equipment. In its pre-budget submission, the RSL also warned the government must properly resource both ADF capability and the implementation of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide because a hollowed out Australian Defence Force and a broken veteran system is a betrayal of those who serve.

RSL national leadership has warned that the government risks hollowing out the ADF and pouring money into select high-end platforms, while neglecting manpower, retention and readiness, and they are calling the outsourced recruitment model an abject failure. Let's get real. You can't deter aggression with slogans. You can't recruit with spin. You can't ask Australians to wear the uniform while refusing to give them the tools, the numbers, the support and the certainty that they deserve.

The strike near Al Minhad should be a wake-up call. If our people can be placed in harm's way overseas, then this parliament has a solemn duty to ensure they are properly protected, properly equipped and properly backed. That means real investment. That means urgency. That means rebuilding capability, strengthening recruitment and retention, restoring morale and funding defence for the strategic reality we face, not the political comfort zone of the Albanese Labor government. Peace is preserved through strength, and right now Labor is asking Australia to accept weakness.

We must do everything to ensure that the Australian Defence Force has the equipment, the ability to fight and to win and is supported, because right now we have a recruitment, a retention and a readiness issue, and it has not been addressed by this Labor government. It has been glossed over and pushed to the side. Members of the Australian Defence Force are worried. They know that they need the equipment now. You need to train like you fight. And they can't, because of poor investment and poor leadership. The Australian Defence Force is made up of professional men and women, and they need to be supported by this weak Labor government.

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