At the outset, I want to say I support this legislation. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Bill 2026 and related bills are about protecting our defence bases, our personnel, our critical assets, as well as accelerating development of the capability that Defence needs to keep Australians safe. Why is it important for my electorate? Because my electorate is home to the biggest operational air base in the country, RAAF Base Amberley, which hosts a number of strategic fleets there such as the Super Hornets, the Growlers, the Globemasters et cetera.

Nearly one in 10 of the jobs in the city of Ipswich are created directly or indirectly by the presence of RAAF base Amberley. Of course, there are very strong defence related industry partners in the area, from Boeing to Rheinmetall to Saab to so many others in the Ipswich area. The contribution of RAAF Bass Amberley to the Ipswich economy is nearly $1.4 billion annually, so it's crucial. The expansion of the base since it was first created in June 1940 has been absolutely astonishing. Over the last two decades, we've seen a massive growth in the military base. It was crucial during World War II as it served the Australian and the United States militaries, and in operations in Papua New Guinea as well.

RAAF base Amberley is crucial, and this legislation is very important for my home city of Ipswich as well. It establishes a modern legislative framework. As a recovering lawyer, if I can put it like this, I'm always happy to see legislative frameworks in place to buttress rather than relying on regulations. I'm someone who truly believes that if the likes of Barton and Deakin and Parkes and Clarke et cetera were around here today, they would say that they had done a pretty good job on the Australian Constitution, but they could have mentioned local government and perhaps they might have given the federal government a few more powers. The relationship between local, state and federal governments in this country obviously bedevil, at times, the operation of military assets, so making sure we have a legislative framework in place is crucial. I know that the assistant minister did a regulation in relation to these matters, but making sure we've got a proper legislative framework is absolutely important.

The legislation is also important because we have bipartisan commitment to AUKUS pillars 1 and II. It provides that authority for countermeasures against drone technology. Drones aren't just about assistance in getting photographs at events to put on social media. They can be invasions of privacy and they can be threats to military capability. The ability of our military to detect, to monitor, to track, to take necessary action against drones is absolutely vital, not just in offensive operations but also in defensive operations and in the operations of our military technology. Countermeasures will be done safely and appropriate safeguards put in place here.

There are additional oversight powers in this legislation for the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. The legislation ensures there's a self-reliance and support for the defence industry as well. It fulfils our mission. I think it's got important capabilities. This is a very important piece of legislation.

I know we're in the Federation Chamber, but let me tell you it's important that we have the legislative authority to do what we need to do. This legislation allows us to operate effectively with industry and international partners. We know that legislative frameworks change. I mean, we've seen the laws in this country evolve over years. The Commonwealth has greater powers. Sometimes that's been through cooperative federalism, sometimes that's been through constitutional change, sometimes that's been through High Court decisions, but it's important that the Commonwealth has those powers in relation to defence capability to make sure that our defence security arrangements are strengthened and that we have parliamentary oversight. The previous speaker, the member for Hasluck, spoke about the Joint Standing Committee on Defence. That is also great initiative of this Labor government. These establish the foundations, of course, and implement our National Defence Strategy, including making sure that we have capacity to interrelate with and be interoperable with our AUKUS partners as well.

This legislation will provide oversight. It implements decisions agreed to by the National Security Committee of cabinet in December last year to modernise defence legislation and support delivery of the strategy in AUKUS. There are two frameworks: the Defence Capability Framework and the Defence Security Zone Framework. Other speakers have gone through that, and I don't intend to delay the House about that. I just want to let them know that it is really important that we have this capacity to protect our personnel, because we want them to be serving in uniform. We want them, whether they're overseas or domestic, to be protected. We don't want our security assets to be vulnerable. The framework also provides information sharing.

The second schedule provides Defence with an enduring legislative authority and allows defence personnel to protect defence sites. That's crucial. We need Defence to do that. We can't just rely on the local police. I've got a lot of respect for the Queensland Police, but we've got to have the authority to take down drones and other uncrewed systems. It's important. If you went to the RAAF Base Amberley, you would see that there are homes around there. There's the Ivor Marsden cricket centre not far from RAAF Base Amberley. There are farms not far away from the base—to periurban area. There are plenty of opportunities, if someone wants to do the wrong thing, to do it, so we need the capacity to take down those drones if necessary. We want to make sure that we can detect, monitor, track and respond to that drone technology, which is used to undermine our national security.

There are safeguards, as I said, in relation to the scope and powers of the frameworks, and they're established in schedules as we normally do. There's the legislative criteria to which the minister or an authorised decision-maker has to have regard in decisions they make and activities under the framework. In relation to that, in terms of the authorisation of the capability activity, there's a 'reasonable and proportionate' test there as well. There's an appropriate safeguard test as well in relation to it. In relation to schedule 2, there's a requirement that the zone be geographically limited. I've just mentioned that cricket complex not far from RAAF base Amberley and Beams Road.

I'm sure Billy Beam, who lives on Beams Road and has been a regular member of the Amberley consultative committee with me over many years, has great proprietary interest in what happens right beside the RAAF Base Amberley on Beams Road. It's important that we get this right. The minister is required as far as practicable to consult with those people affected by the creation of the zone. I'm sure the minister would like to have a meeting with Billy to discuss those issues. I'm sure Billy will let him know next time he's at RAAF Base Amberley. I have been to RAAF Base Amberley with the assistant minister, and I'm sure Billy will be delighted to have a conversation with him in relation to it.

I want to get this passed by the end of the year because it's important for the legislative requirements. I want to comment in the minutes that remain about the importance of the RAAF base there and our defence spaces and what they do in terms of our defence estate. As I said before, RAAF Base Amberley has been important for Ipswich for over 85 years, and it plays an important role in our defence and security and also the humanitarian assistance disaster responses both locally and internationally. One of the things that is a really big issue for RAAF Base Amberley and around there—and I won't go on to the PFAs issue, because the assistant minister is taking action. We are engaging in litigation there on PFAs. I feel that we have historically let our local residents down in relation to that, but we are taking action.

The other issue is the need for noise attenuation in and around RAAF Base Amberley for local residents who are affected by extreme noise in relation to that. We have made an election commitment, and I'm looking forward to that being fulfilled as well. One of the things that really, really affects the personnel that we're talking about, who are affected by incursions on RAAF Base Amberley by these drones, is the Amberley Interchange right there on Cunningham Highway just beside the base. We've made a $200 million commitment to fix this interchange and build a graded separation interchange.

I am calling on the Queensland government, which has gone very quiet, to match our federal funding on the Amberley Interchange. It would really assist those men and women whose protection is going to be covered by this legislation. If you want to protect them in terms of legislation to protect them from drone incursions, you should also protect those people as they're entering the base and leaving the base on the road that leads to the base. I'm calling on the Queensland government to match our funding commitment to get on with the job, finish the planning work and get construction started. It's really important in relation to our local area.

To sum up, I want to thank the minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the assistant minister for bringing forward these critical reforms. They are very important. As I say, they provide a legislative framework, and I think that we need to be very vigilant and very contemporary in the way we do things in relation to our defence. We cannot be stuck in an era where, in terms of our mentality, we rely on the way in which our forefathers and foremothers engaged in warfare and operated our defence. Every country that does that ends up being destroyed and degraded because they are not advancing in terms of military technology and military capacity. So I applaud the minister and congratulate him and I commend the legislation to the chamber.