Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence. Will the minister update the House on how the Morrison-McCormack government is working with regional partners to keep Australia safe?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. There's nobody in this place who does more work than he does with PNG and with the north of our country across the Torres Strait to keep his community safe and to keep those on those near islands safe as well. Whatever the threat, whether it's COVID or providing support to those communities, the work that the member for Leichhardt does is quite remarkable.

As all Australians will know, the Morrison government is absolutely committed as our first priority to keeping Australians safe both now and into the decades ahead. But, as we know, the Indo-Pacific region is at the moment a far more complex and far less predictable space than at any time since the Second World War. It's expected that by 2035 at least half of the world's most advanced combat aircraft will be operating in the region, and we know that more than half of the world's 470 in-service submarines are already operating in the Indo-Pacific waters.

The government is stepping up our engagement with our Pacific partners and working even more closely with our allies. As the Prime Minister has demonstrated through his leadership in Cornwall over recent days, he is engaging, and rightly so, with President Biden, with Prime Minister Johnson and with others at the G7 to get a sharper focus on what is taking place in the Indo-Pacific. And the foreign minister and I met with our Japanese counterparts and also with our German counterparts in the two-plus-two dialogue over the last few days—again, a very sharp focus on what is happening in our region. I know that the French, the Germans, NATO and others are having a particular look, in a different way perhaps than they did even 12 or 18 months ago, at what is happening in the Indo-Pacific region, and we're very grateful for their engagement. We'll continue to work very closely with them.

This follows on from a record investment that we've made into the capacity of the Australian Defence Force, a $270 billion investment over the course of this decade, to provide them with the equipment they need to make sure they can keep our country safe. We shouldn't take for granted what we have, and we know that with our partners—in particular, with the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and India in the Quad—and the work we do with our ASEAN partners and the work the Prime Minister has done with the G7-plus gives us the best opportunity to make sure that we stand up for our sovereignty, to make sure that we reject any attempt at interference in our country or our near neighbours. And we'll make sure that we do whatever it takes to keep Australians safe.