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

I thank the member for his question. He is such a fantastic advocate for defence industry within his region.

Ghost Bat is the world's leading collaborative combat aircraft, which is being developed by the Air Force and Boeing Australia. Last year, in testing at Woomera, a Ghost Bat successfully fired an air-to-air missile, hitting its target. That gained global attention because it is literally years ahead of any comparable platform which is being developed by our friends and allies. Ghost Shark, which is being developed by the Navy and Anduril, is the world's longest-range large underwater-capable autonomous platform, and there are Ghost Sharks which are in the hands of the Navy right now. Ghost Bat is a $1.4 billion program, and Ghost Shark is a $1.7 billion program. Together, they are part of the $12 billion to $15 billion which we provided to autonomous systems and drones for the Defence Force in the budget on Tuesday night.

A decade ago, it was really clear that drones would become increasingly important, yet when the Liberals were in government the most significant step that they took in respect of autonomous platforms was to cut the $1.3 billion SkyGuardian program. They took us backwards, not forwards, because, when they were in government, they definitely did not have their hands on the defence wheel. But how could they have when they cycled six—really seven—different defence ministers through the portfolio in just nine years? And, in the last four years, they've cycled another three.

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