Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Lavarack Barracks in Townsville is Australia’s largest military base by far. More than 50,000 soldiers have served there during its forty-year history. Right now, the senior leadership of the army—all of them—have been through the 3rd Brigade in Townsville. The Australian Defence Force clearly understands that, if you do not have a posting through the 3rd Brigade, your career does not go terribly far. I pay tribute to those officers who are in the current senior leadership and who have served in Townsville.

To my very great surprise, during the week a forum, held in Cairns to look at the very poor economic conditions of that city, came up with the idea of transferring some of Lavarack Barracks up there. I have to say to you, ‘Over my dead body, Cairns! This is not going to be allowed. I will fight tooth and nail against any plan you might have to try to move parts of Lavarack to Cairns. It is a ridiculous suggestion.’ The 3rd Brigade, as Australia’s premier brigade, needs all of its units together in the one barracks so that it can work operationally most effectively. It will not do that if units are in other parts of Australia; it is the reason why we are bringing the 3rd Battalion from Holsworthy up to Townsville—the 3rd Battalion is commanded by the 3rd Brigade and we are having all the units at Lavarack, Australia’s premier military base. We spent a lot of money, and we are currently spending something like $500 million on Lavarack, making it such a magnificent base.

If Cairns continues to talk about this, I warn them that I will be looking at bringing parts of HMAS Cairns down to Townsville that would make sense. The client for the new landing helicopter dock—LHD—ships that Defence is buying is the 3rd Brigade, and it would be absolutely sensible to have those ships based in Townsville, not in Cairns, nor in Sydney. If that needs support, then we will take the support out of HMAS Cairns and bring it down to a Navy base in Townsville. So, Cairns, my warning to you is that you have a battle on your hands if you pursue this. I will certainly stand up with all the effort that I can.

The reason that Cairns is doing this and the reason they have such a poor economy is that it is based only on tourism; it is not a broad based economy. By doing that, Cairns has got itself into its own pickle; it is in a terrible situation. But they are not going to get themselves out of that situation by affecting the economy of my city. I am a fierce defender of the men and women of the Australian Defence Force at Lavarack Barracks and will continue to be so.