Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence. Will the minister update the House on the Morrison government's commitment in ensuring that the Australian Defence Force has the resources and the personnel that it needs in order to keep Australia safe and secure, and is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

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

I want to say thank you very much to the member for Braddon for the support that he provides to the Australian Defence Force and acknowledge his own service in uniform to our country.

We know that our nation faces a set of geopolitical circumstances and challenges and threats on a scale and complexity that we haven't seen since the Second World War. Everybody has been watching the unfolding scenes in Europe, in the Ukraine, with a fear that it could spread to other countries, to NATO countries, and what that would mean for Europe and, indeed what it would mean for the rest of the world.

People have been shocked by the relationship between China and Russia, and people rightly are worried about China's own ambition within our region, within the Indo-Pacific, and so we have been determined to do all that we can not to take peace for granted. I think all Australians realise that we are in a very different world now than we were five or 10 years ago. That's why it's been essential for the Australian government, for the Morrison government, to strengthen the Australian Defence Force, to announce that we will increase the number of ADF personnel by over 30 per cent, to a total permanent force of about 80,000 people, and overall Defence's total permanent workforce will increase to over 101,000—an increase of 18½ thousand over the baseline growth already agreed in 2020.

We have, over the course of the last eight years, gone about making sure that we fix up Labor's mess in Defence and the national security agencies. The reality is that Labor ripped money out of Defence. They ripped money out of ASIO. They ripped money out of the Australian Federal Police. They ripped money out of ASIS. We were not the strong country that we needed to be when it came to the Australian Defence Force.

We know that one of the most shameful attributes of the Rudd-Albanese period in government was to reduce spending as a percentage of GDP to 1.56 per cent, the lowest level since 1938. It was a shocking time for Defence and for the men and women of the ADF.

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will resume his seat. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. It is a point of order, Mr Speaker. It's irony. This is coming from the government which stuffed the subs.

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

No, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The minister has the call.

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

That was more a job advertisement. What about poor old Brendan O'Connor? Have you ever heard of him? What's he going to do?

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business—

Honourable members interjecting—

I'm not going to call you until the interjections cease. The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House is out of order and knows he's out of order when he makes those comments, and it's a deliberate flouting of the rules of the House.

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

The defence minister has the call.

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

The reality is that if we had continued defence spending at the same levels that Labor had when they were last in government then we would have been spending $55 billion less on defence over the course of the last eight years. What does that mean? It means that men and women of the Australian Defence Force would have been looking for other jobs. We would have reduced numbers, because that's what Labor did when they were in government. (Time expired)