Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on the Defence Strategic Review for northern Australia and cleaning up the mess of the last decade left by the former government?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and acknowledge his ongoing interest in the defence of Australia.

Today, there are almost 2,000 US marines in Darwin operating alongside our troops as part of the 12th marine rotation, which commenced with a decision of the Gillard government back in 2011. This activity represents an increased focus on the part of our Defence Force on our nation's north, as does the $3.8 billion commitment over the next four years by the Albanese government to increase the utility of our northern bases for our Defence Force. This represents one of the six key priorities the government is focused on in response to the Defence Strategic Review, and it comes after a decade of inaction from the former government when it came to our northern bases. It was the 2012 force posture review which said how important our northern bases are to our nation's defence—and this was reaffirmed in the 2013 Defence white paper.

But, in the decade which ensued, when those opposite were governing our country, the Defence Strategic Review found that precious little was done to increase the capability of our northern bases.

But the failure of those opposite to act on our northern bases really shouldn't come as much of a surprise, because the Defence Strategic Review also found that the former coalition government effectively cut billions of dollars from the Defence budget. In their last five years in government, there were $20 billion worth of effective Defence cuts, including billions of dollars stripped out of our Defence Force through a single strategic reserve adjustment.

The former government's effective cuts to Defence, their failure to invest in our northern bases, and the capability gap that they opened up in respect of our submarines as a result of a decade of indecision, together represent a monumental failure on their part in respect of the defence of the Australian people. That could not have come at a worse time for our country, as Australia faces the most complex and threatening strategic circumstances that we've had since the end of the Second World War.

All of that is now changing. Under the Albanese government, we are bringing the defence budget back into order. We are focusing our resources where Defence needs them the most, based on a new posture which includes focusing on our northern bases. These are serious decisions being made by a serious government committed to keeping Australians safe.