Emma Comer (Petrie, 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 for defence, and what are the alternative approaches and policies?

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

I thank the member for her question and acknowledge her service since coming to office in 2022. The government has undertaken the Defence Strategic Review, which is the most comprehensive reassessment of our strategic posture in 35 years, and we are now building a Defence Force to meet that moment. We've taken the idea of AUKUS and given substance to it, providing for the biggest industrial project in our country's history. We inherited a shrinking Defence Force. We have now turned that around, and it is growing again, and we are undertaking the biggest reform to the Defence estate ever. All of this is being underpinned by the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending in our nation's history.

Now, in our system of government, it is important to understand alternatives, as the honourable member has asked. That really invites me to make a critique of the shadow minister's positions on defence. The issue here is that, when it comes to the shadow minister and defence, what we have is a completely blank page because he has said absolutely nothing. I mean, as the shadow Treasurer in the last parliament, he did say that defence spending should be confined to the fiscal envelope that the Liberals took to the 2022 election, which would mean that he is against the $70 billion worth of investment that our government has made in defence.

On the other hand, and to be fair, in the last couple of weeks he has visited, with the member for Flinders, HMAS Cerberus, after which he posted a video in which he said 'massive investments in recent years making a real difference', then:

Zoe tell us about it.

Helpfully, the member for Flinders chimes in with 'never been more recruits coming into the Navy than there is now'. In response to that, let me say: fantastic, great move—well done, Angus! I actually spoke to my social media team—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Yes, we'll deal with this in an orderly way. I just want to make sure he was quoting. I'm not sure; I couldn't hear what he was quoting or if he was quoting a social media post or whatnot. The member for Gippsland on a point of order.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, in your exhortation at the start of question time for a kind of parliament, the minister should really direct his—

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

Yes. The member for Gippsland is correct. If the minister was quoting directly, this gets into dangerous territory. The easiest way to do that is simply for everyone to refer to them by their titles—not first names, not surnames, just their titles.

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

I suggested to the social media team that we actually repost the video, but they said, 'In a two-party system based on a contest of ideas, it's really not the done thing.' But the problem here in contesting ideas with the shadow minister is he literally has no idea. When it comes to the two-party system, the Liberals are single-handedly trying to dismantle that concept. The only statement of substance that the shadow minister has said since being the shadow minister is that he wants to be the leader. But, if those opposite are going to turn to the shadow minister, I can assure them what they will get is a giant vacant space.