House debates

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Questions without Notice

Australian Defence Force

2:48 pm

Photo of Kevin AndrewsKevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Would the defence minister update the House on how the government is protecting Australians and our national sovereignty through appropriate investment in the Australian Defence Force and in the capability that they rely upon? How does the government's approach to protecting our national security and national sovereignty differ from other approaches?

Photo of Christopher PyneChristopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Menzies for his question. I can confirm with him that the government continues to invest in significant military capability. Just on Monday, we signed a strategic partnering agreement with France and Naval Group to deliver the 12 submarines—a $50 billion project with 12 submarines to be built here in Australia, using Australian workers, Australian steel and Australian know-how. And since the parliament rose last December, we have also taken charge of the first two of our Joint Strike Fighters, the F-35As, as part of an $18.5 billion program delivering 72 F-35As to the Australian Air Force. On this side of the House, we know that defence capability is a very important priority of any government. We understand national security and we understand defence, and you can trust this side of the House to deliver on national security and on defence.

In fact, you can trust us on this side of the House to get to two per cent of GDP being spent on defence by 2020—a year earlier than we promised. The other side of the House, when they were last in government, managed to get defence spending down to 1.56 per cent of GDP—the lowest level since 1938, the lowest level since the last year of appeasement. Since the Second World War, we are investing more in our military capability than any government in our peacetime history, and on this side of the House we're very proud of that.

But I was pleased when I was reading the consultative draft of the Labor Party's National Policy Forum, which was to be debated in Adelaide at their national conference, to see at article 44 that Labor is committed to achieving and maintaining spending on defence at two per cent of GDP—good news, I thought. I thought, 'The shadow minister for defence has finally had a win! He doesn't have much of a profile, but he's finally had a win!' But imagine my dismay when I read the entire document as it was presented at the national policy conference of the Labor Party. Their entire platform, their final document, and do you know what? No. 44, about that two per cent of GDP, didn't make it into the final document. It was in the consultative draft; it didn't make it into the final document. So the Labor Party is not committed to two per cent of GDP being spent on defence. The shadow minister for defence lost that argument to the Left. The Left nobbled national security yet again in the Labor Party's platform.