'Everyday people doing extraordinary things'—that's the way Commander Paul Hardman described the work of his outstanding crew on HMAS Choules, who generously hosted me recently as part of the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program. I couldn't agree more with him, and I was proud as an Australian to have the opportunity to see it up close in person.

The ADF Parliamentary Program allows members of this place to step into the shoes of the Australian servicemen and servicewomen who we ask so much of as a nation. It gives MPs a meaningful insight into the day-to-day operations of the ADF through practical, immersive experiences. We get the opportunity to experience their workplaces, share their daily routines and gain a much deeper understanding of their lives and the responsibilities that they carry on behalf of Australia every day. I've participated in the program four times now, and I've always walked away with a feeling of deep pride in being able to see Australians in the ADF executing what they have been trained to do in the field.

I also want to put on the record that, in the decade that I've participated in the program, I've personally observed the way that the culture of the ADF, like this parliament, has changed. I was proud to see the diversity of modern Australia reflected in the young service men and women that I saw on this program. Real progress has been made on this front, and I want to recognise it here in this place.

This year in the ADFPP, I joined the ADF personnel taking part in exercise Keris Woomera 2026. Exercise Keris Woomera is a major bilateral military exercise conducted between the Australian Defence Force and the Indonesian National Armed Forces, and it was established by this government in 2024. The name Keris Woomera tells a story. The kris is a traditional Indonesian dagger, the woomera a traditional Australian spear thrower. Together they symbolise two distinct traditions working together towards a common purpose. That symbolism is important because this exercise is about far more than military exercises. It's about trust. It's about understanding. It's about building the habits of cooperation that allow two neighbouring countries to work effectively together when it matters most. Around 1,000 ADF personnel and over 1,200 TNI members participated in the exercise and conducted complex training across maritime, land, air and cyber domains. It's a significant exercise and a key element of our broader Indo-Pacific Endeavour program. The exercise is designed to strengthen interoperability, enhance combined operational capabilities and further deepen defence cooperation between Australia and Indonesia.

As part of KW 2026, I bunkered down with the REM on HMAS Choules, embarked on amphibious vehicles to land on the east coast of Java near Banyuwangi, slept in barracks with an artillery unit and experienced the South-East Asian heat in uniform with protective gear.

KW 2026 was a significant exercise for multiple reasons. It was the first time Australia's High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, HIMARS, was deployed and fired overseas. KW 2026 was also the first time that RAAF No. 4 Squadron deployed aircraft into South-East Asia since the Second World War. It was also the first time that Australia conducted cyberintegration training with Indonesia.

Participating in exercise Keris Woomera gave me the opportunity to observe something that's increasingly important in Australia's security and prosperity: the partnership between Australia and Indonesia. Australia and Indonesia are good neighbours and close partners. We're bound by strategic trust, mutual respect and a shared interest in a peaceful, stable and prosperous region. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Albanese and President Prabowo signed the Australia-Indonesia Treaty on Common Security, the Jakarta treaty. That treaty reflects a close friendship, partnership and deep trust between Australia and Indonesia. At its core is a simple idea: to keep Australia and Australians secure, we have to anchor our security in our region. Exercises like Keris Woomera show what that looks like in practice. They deepen understanding between our people and help build the habits of partnership that contribute to peace, stability and security across the region.

What struck me most during the exercise was not the equipment, impressive though it was, nor the complexity of the planning. It was the people. The Australian Defence Force and TNI are building something that no agreement or exercise directive can create on its own: trust—trust that comes from training together, solving problems together, spending time together. I had the opportunity to speak to both ADF members and TNI personnel throughout the exercise, and again and again I heard the same thing: they genuinely enjoy working together as partners. They value the opportunity to learn from one another. They appreciate the different perspectives each side brings. They recognise that every exercise strengthens relationships that may one day prove critical when our countries are called on to work together.

I acknowledge and thank all those who made my participation in exercise Keris Woomera possible. I want to thank my in-country liaison officer—makasih pak. I thank Lieutenant Alec Fuller for sharing an early-morning picket with me in Java. I thank Colonel Mark Tutton, Commander Landing Force of the Australian Amphibious Force; Captain Christopher Doherty, RAN, Commander Australian Amphibious Task Group; Commander Paul Hardman, the commanding officer of the HMAS Choules; Bombardier Max Vaughan, who demonstrated how to make things go bang on Java; and all of the ADF personnel who hosted us throughout the exercise, including my cabinmate on the Choules, Lieutenant Elliot Mitchell. Thank you also, as always, to Lieutenant Colonel Andy Martin, who does the important work of preparing all Australian parliamentarians to participate in the program. And I want to recognise Lieutenant Colonel Brett Edmonds, who I hosted in my office as part of the ADF parliamentary exchange before his departure. You're a credit to the ADF. Thank you also to all the Australian service men and women for our country.

Deputy Prime Minister Marles recently said that artificial intelligence is 'as big a sovereignty inflection point as we've seen since the Second World War'. He's right. A commitment from a frontier AI lab to train their models here could be the foundation of a new Australian-based AI industry that powers our security and prosperity in the decades to come. Hosting the training of frontier AI models in Australia could greatly expand the range of choices available to Australia in the rapidly changing and uncertain world we are seeing emerging around us. But the terms of that investment matter. Done right, it could commit the labs to invest in Australian researchers, put compute in the hands of Australian universities and start-ups and deal Australia into a seat at the table where the rules on the regulations and safety of frontier AI get written.

If Australia hosted an internationally significant share of the world's training compute, our voice would carry further with the labs and with other governments. We'd be wired into the supply chain of an industry that will shape the coming decades. We'd make ourselves indispensable. None of this will just happen, though. The labs have choices about where they invest. They weigh energy, talent, law and politics, and other countries are courting them. Winning this investment will take what Australia used to do best: an approach of our own—one that shapes things in the Australian way.

The Prime Minister has stated that the work with his framework on Australian standards for AI is intended to do this. The Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence has backed it. A letter to the Prime Minister from the committee on 12 October, signed by the chair and the deputy chair, said that Australia should not merely be 'a consumer of AI technologies developed elsewhere, but a trusted, competitive and strategically capable partner of the global AI industry'. The letter asks that any deal with the labs reserve compute for national security and our universities. It asks that the Australian Signals Directorate be given early access to new models.

But the committee also heard that there's a real obstacle to being able to realise investment in frontier AI model training in Australia. In my first speech in this place, in 2013, I noted that Australian intellectual property law was throwing sand in the gears of digital innovation and limiting Australian productivity growth. American copyright law has built the most rewarding economy for content creators in world history. Home to the biggest film and music industries in the world, Hollywood and the Grammys, as well as a video game industry bigger than both of them put together, it's a great place to be a filmmaker, musician, writer or artist. But US copyright law also allows transformative uses of content—using existing work to create something completely different. This kind of transformative use is the foundation of digital innovation, and there may be no better example of this transformative use than generative AI.

Generative AI doesn't substitute or compete with the products that it learns from. It learns from them and creates something completely new. American courts have ruled on training for generative AI and so far have found it to be a fair use. Australian law has no similar legislative protection for transformative uses. As a result, the work of Australian artists, musicians and journalists is currently being used to train generative AI models in the United States—in the words of the committee's letter to the PM—'without adequate control or payment'. At the same time, it's also why no frontier AI labs are training models here.

The evidence before the committee is clear: the status quo doesn't work for anyone—not the creators, not the labs, not the Australian national interest—nor does it maximise our sovereignty. And that's what the committee's letter to the PM said. It asked the government to re-examine our copyright settings so that creators keep control and get paid to build a better outcome for Australia—one that, if we can reach it, will be a world-leading settlement. Last month, at the National Press Club, former prime minister Kevin Rudd warned that Australia could slide into becoming a second-rate country. Missing opportunities like this is what would make us one.