Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. What are the difficulties the Albanese Labor government has faced in the Defence portfolio, and what difficult decisions are being made as a result?

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

Today, the Albanese government has concluded negotiations for a historic defence cooperation agreement with Indonesia. In February, our government announced a complete restructure of our Navy, which saw the first of a new class of surface combatants enter into our fleet this decade. Last year, we restructured the Army. Next year, we will see the beginnings of the manufacturing of guided weapons in Australia.

The Defence Strategic Review has completely reassessed our strategic circumstances and has reshaped our Defence Force, and, most importantly, these decisions have been funded by record increases in Defence spending over the forward estimates and over the decade. All of this has happened in just two years.

The contrast between the actions of the Albanese government and the vaudeville and hoopla which we saw from those opposite could not be more stark. The shadow minister for defence has said that he wants to see—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my right will cease interjecting. The member for Canning is entitled, just like any other member is entitled, to raise a point of order.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was on relevance. There were no alternative approaches mentioned, and Happy Gilmore here has just gone nuts with his—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No. Resume your seat. That remark is not necessary to make. A reflection on a member is not appropriate. We are not having a question time where people put digs into each other unnecessarily—

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! We're just going to hear from the Leader of the House.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Speaker, just on the issue of relevance, the question went specifically at the start to the difficulties that are being faced in the Defence portfolio. On those difficulties, the minister is clearly drawing on the legacy we inherited. That makes it completely relevant.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is entitled to talk about the difficulties, but he simply can't have the remainder of his answer regarding criticism. He'll need to make it relevant to government policy, which I'm sure he will do.

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

The shadow minister for defence has said he wants to see a dramatic increase in defence capability by 2026, but he cannot even secure agreement within his own ranks to support Labor's increase in defence spending. What makes it worse is that those opposite, when they were in government, chronically underfunded defence, an underfunding of defence which, under them, would not have seen new amphibious craft for our army until the 2030s, a new surface combatant for our navy until 2034 or the manufacture of guided weapons until 2035. What made it even worse was that they were completely incapable of making a difficult decision. They were elected in 2013. Having changed their minds twice, it was not until 2021 that they settled on the successor submarine to the Collins class. Even then, they were saved by the fact that they were thrown out of government seven months later, before they could change their minds again.

Underwriting it all was a complete incompetence, incompetence that was led by their last defence minister, the Leader of the Opposition, incompetence which saw seven different defence ministers during the course of nine years, incompetence which saw 28 different defence projects running a combined 97 years over time. That has all changed because, in the last two years, the Albanese government has been making the decisions to do what it takes to rebuild our Defence Force and to keep Australians safe.