Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2025-2026 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026. High-performing governments invest money efficiently and in line with their priorities. It takes hard work, careful diligence, running the numbers and then running the numbers again and again. It requires a degree of engagement with risk. It's a deliberate policy act, and I am careful to refrain from describing this as spending, because it is actually investment. It is an investment in Australia's people—their futures and Australia's future. It is an investment in sustainability, in security and in health. It is an investment in systems that work and in infrastructure that delivers value for Australians. This is what the Albanese Labor government is doing. We are investing in Australia for the future. In these appropriation bills, there is more than $3.2 billion to implement the 2024 NDS, the National Defence Strategy, and Defence's 2024 Integrated Investment Program, the IIP, and to enable the delivery of prioritised capabilities.

Let's consider some of the investments that this Labor government has made in defence capability. The Australian Ocius Bluebottle—and I just spoke with the operators and owners of that great Australian company in the Great Hall a moment ago. Earlier this month, our government announced it would be investing $176 million in a new fleet of Australian-made uncrewed vessels known as Bluebottles, from Ocius Technology. We will be getting 40 of them, making it one of the largest sovereign uncrewed surface vessel fleets in the world. These innovative surface vessels will significantly boost intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance—or ISR capabilities—in our maritime approaches. This will include—based out of my electorate in Darwin—providing situational awareness and maritime domain awareness to the north of Australia. By virtue of their being powered by solar, wind and wave energy, they will have extended operational endurance, and this demonstrates the high levels of innovation we have in Australia for harnessing those forms of energy. I was lucky enough to see a couple of these Bluebottles and meet the team behind them when the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade visited the Ocius crew in Darwin last year. It's a very innovative capability backed by a great team.

On AUKUS long-lead items, continuing in the maritime domain, just last month the government announced a $310 million payment for the long-lead items from the UK in support of the manufacture of critical components for nuclear powered submarines, including the propulsion systems of the SSN-AUKUS. This is further evidence that we are delivering on AUKUS, and that it is making way, full steam ahead. This announcement came off the back of a $3.9 billion downpayment to deliver the new submarine construction yard at Osborne in South Australia. We're not only delivering; we're building our industrial capacity to increase our enduring and sovereign capacity to deliver.

Still in the maritime domain, in recent weeks the government has also signed two key contracts with Defence's strategic shipbuilder to build the Army's new medium and heavy landing craft, which the National Defence Strategy and the Defence Strategic Review before it had called for, in order for the Army to be optimised for littoral manoeuvre. These landing craft will be central to that optimisation. The Integrated Investment Program has $7 billion to $10 billion for littoral manoeuvre vessels out to 2033-34, and we are funding that optimisation. This will deliver the largest recapitalisation of Army's littoral capability since the Second World War.

Moving to the air, there's the Ghost Bat. In the air domain, the Albanese Labor government is investing $1.4 billion in the MQ-28A Ghost Bat, turning it into a fully operational war-fighting capability for the ADF. It has now successfully engaged, and destroyed, an aerial target. This places us at the cutting edge of collaborative combat aircraft technology globally. It is Australian innovation at its best and demonstrates what Australian industry is capable of. The government is backing industry and innovation.

On GWEO, we have announced that we will start making Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, missiles right here in Australia—in fact, at Port Wakefield in South Australia. This type of missile will be fired from the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, HIMARS, being delivered for Army, giving it a long-range strike capability. This is a key milestone in the government's plan to invest up to $21 billion to acquire more long-range strike systems and make long-range munitions in Australia.

Regarding our support for Ukraine, in February we marked four years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in a blatant violation of international law, including the United Nations Charter. We have seen four years of unprovoked Russian aggression against a sovereign, democratic Ukraine. Australia continues to be steadfast in its commitment to a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. We commend the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people. This support is bipartisan and extends across the parliament, across party lines. We saw this at the recent launch of the Parliamentary Friends of Ukraine on 4 March, and I see it in my electorate of Solomon, with the Ukraine association of the NT.

We are backing this support of Ukraine with funding, with action. We are supporting our friends in Ukraine with more than words. Australia has committed over $1.7 billion in total assistance, including $1.5 billion in military support. In December last year, the government announced a further $95 million package in military assistance for Ukraine as part of that. We help our mates in real ways and we stand against aggression.

Now, I want to remind everyone that this is not an exhaustive list of all that our government, the Albanese federal Labor government, has done—far from it. I have only mentioned some milestones, some recent announcements and some achievements that have occurred since December last year. Everything I've spoken about has occurred in only the past few months. We are moving at speed, investing real money and achieving major milestones in defence.

I want to move to Medicare and health. Not only are we investing in our security, defence capability and sovereign industrial capacity but we're also investing in health and looking after Australians and Australian families. The Albanese Labor government has also delivered a once-in-a-generation change to bulk-billing, which will mean that more Territorians and more Australians can see a doctor for free—no out-of-pocket expenses.

We had some fantastic major announcements in my electorate of Solomon last month, in Darwin and Palmerston, with the location of the Darwin Medicare urgent care clinic being announced and the successful tenderer for the 120- to 150-bed aged-care facility to serve Darwin and Palmerston, as well as the Top End. There are now 23 Medicare bulk-billing GP practices across Darwin and Palmerston, allowing Territorians to access free medical support when they need it, which is particularly important in these times of cost-of-living stress. Over 70 per cent of all local GP practices are now registered as Medicare bulk-billing practices. It still allows people to choose to go to non-bulk-billing practices, of course.

Record hospital funding for the Northern Territory—$3.5 billion over five years from the 2026-27 financial year—has also been delivered. That's on top of the 30 per cent increase in this current financial year. We're also building the long-term health workforce, with the NT's own medical school at Charles Darwin University having opened last month. It's housed in a brand new building called Garrwa. It's also known as the Better Health Futures building. Garrwa, the Larrakia name for the building, also means 'green tree frog', and that is because of the green tree frog's significance in that area of the beautiful CDU campus in Casuarina. I'm very proud that Charles Darwin University now has its own medical program, as well as of the fantastic work that Flinders University's program continues to do, and I also acknowledge Menzies.

We have expanded mental health services, with the Darwin headspace centre upgraded to a headspace Plus and with a youth specialist care centre in Darwin for young people with very complex needs. We are continuing to work with the Northern Territory government to strengthen maternity services in the Northern Territory. I call on the Northern Territory government to stipulate that the new not-for-profit provider of Darwin's private hospital includes maternal health services and maternity services in its licence.

We also launched services like 1800MEDICARE, helping to keep people out of emergency departments. In addition to this, we're making prescription medication cheaper by capping PBS medicines at $25 and at just $7.70 for concession card holders. This is the least we can do to help people who are concession card holders. This is making a real difference in the lives of Australians and Territorians. People should be able to get the medicines they and their families need without the need to make difficult choices.

I say again: we are investing. These are investments in the health security of our community. We are investing in the health and welfare of Australians. We are investing in a health system that actually works for Territorians and for Australians. We are investing in making health services more accessible to people who need them. Furthermore, this investment is also delivering cost-of-living relief for Australians, as I just mentioned.

This appropriation bill gives $325 million to the Treasury to provide loans to Housing Australia to support social and affordable housing projects as part of the Housing Australia Future Fund. Housing and home ownership is a challenge in my home of greater Darwin, as it is everywhere, so we announced support for more first home buyers from Darwin to get into home ownership by increasing the property price cap for the five per cent home deposit scheme. On 1 July this year, two price caps will now operate in the Northern Territory. The one for the greater Darwin region, where home ownership is set generally at a higher mean than the rest of the Territory, will now be $750,000. For the rest of the Northern Territory, it will be set at $600,000. The five per cent deposit scheme has already helped more than 1,800 Territorians move into their first home since we came into government.

I say again: we are investing in our national security and defence, in our health and wellbeing, and in our housing. We're investing in putting roofs over the heads of people who can call those roofs their own. We're investing in having places for people to call home—places in which they can raise their families and make memories with their loved ones.

In the time remaining, I want to talk about home batteries. The Albanese Labor government is helping more households, small businesses and community groups bring down their energy bills for good through sensible changes to expand and secure the sustainability of our Cheaper Home Batteries Program. Territorians in greater numbers every day, every week are cutting their energy bills by installing cheaper home batteries and using them to store all that Territory sunshine, all that Territory gold. Darwin residents are installing batteries at double the rate of residents in Melbourne. Nearly 700 residents have taken up the government's offer of support to have a 30 per cent discount on the cost of a home battery, saving them up to $2,300 per annum.

Under Appropriation Bill (No. 3), the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water will receive around $2.9 billion, predominantly to continue their support for the Cheaper Home Batteries Program. After having been expanded to $7.2 billion over four years, an increase from the initial $2.3 billion, this program is expected to see more than two million Australians install a battery by 2030. This should deliver around 40 gigawatt hours of capacity, increasing expected capacity fourfold.

I'll say again that this government is investing—investing in the sustainable generation of solar energy, investing to help Australians cut their energy bills. We are investing so we have more cheap, fast, safe solar energy available in our homes by day or by night when and where it's needed. I'm proud that this government is investing in Territorians and Australians.

See this speech in context