The coalition will support the passage of the Defence Legislation Amendment (Accelerating Capability and Protecting Bases) Bill 2026 in the House and seek referral to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence for a short inquiry. At the outset, the bill looks fine, but it was quite a rush to get it to the parliament and to the opposition. We understand that this bill has been in the works for some time, but to get a very late high-level briefing over the weekend and then to have to be here now is one of the quickest turnarounds for a bill that I've been involved in. It is only right that it goes to the new defence committee so it can be interrogated through the departments and allow stakeholders to give feedback by coming in and talking to the committee about their concerns, being mindful that also has another quick turnaround time, which is unusual.

The most important responsibility for any government is to keep Australians safe. That includes the men and women we ask to defend this country. We ask them to train hard, spend time away from their families and prepare to put themselves in danger for our nation. They should be able to trust that their government will give them the equipment they need to protect themselves and the bases where they serve. As a former soldier, that matters to me. As the member for Herbert representing the people of Townsville, the largest garrison city in the country, this matters to me. As the shadow minister for defence industry and the shadow minister for defence personnel, it is a responsibility I take seriously, because the decisions we make here affect the people wearing uniform. If equipment is delayed, they are the ones left waiting. If bases cannot deal with the security threat, they are the ones at risk. They deserve laws that help them do their job and a parliament willing to make changes that they need. That is how I approach the Defence Legislation Amendment (Accelerating Capability and Protecting Bases) Bill 2026. This bill aims to do important work. We need to make it easier to develop defence equipment and technology here in Australia. We need to give the people protecting our bases clear legal powers to do their job. I welcome these changes. Defence needs laws that keep up with the threats and technology our people face today. Our job now is to make sure these changes help the people who serve.

This bill has six schedules or parts. The first deals with developing and testing defence equipment and technology. It aims to remove legal barriers that can hold up work needed to develop, test and maintain that equipment. Australian businesses should have a fair chance to do that work. The document explaining the bill says that red tape can make it more practical to test equipment overseas. This is an opportunity to do it here and to do it better. We want to build more of what Defence needs in Australia. We want Australian jobs and Australian skills. Making it easier to develop and test equipment here gives our businesses a better chance to help defend our country.

Schedule 1 would allow the defence minister to make what are called capability declarations. This would set out the work that can be done, who can do it and which laws are affected. A declaration could allow that work to go ahead without breaching certain state or territory laws. It could also change how certain Commonwealth laws apply, but only where those laws allow it. This could make it easier for Defence to carry out work across different states and territories, with clear rules about what is allowed and who is responsible. For businesses, the process needs to be easy to understand and use. They need to know how to apply, who to speak to and what rules they must follow. Getting this right will help Australian businesses plan their work and get equipment to our serving personnel sooner. There are limits. A declaration cannot allow force against people in Australia, sexual offences or the carrying out of police duties. Certain electronic activities need extra protections and declarations that last no more than six months. These rules would give Defence more room to get important work done while keeping protections in place.

Schedule 2 deals with defence security zones. These are places where special rules apply to protect defence people, equipment and information. These zones can cover more than military bases; they can also cover relevant industry sites and other places where Defence work takes place. This bill allows temporary zones, zones that move with defence assets and zones set up in an emergency. Defence work happens in many places. It makes sense for the law to protect that work wherever it needs to happen. Officials given these powers could check identity, carry out searches, refuse entry, remove or detain people and seize items. They would have to follow the rules set out in the law. Those rules, along with proper training, will help officials do their jobs and give the public confidence that the powers are being used properly.

This schedule also gives officials powers to deal with drones and other machines that operate without anyone on board. The people protecting our bases need to be able to spot the threat, judge the risk and act in time to keep people safe. They need clear legal powers, equipment that works and training in how to use it. The bill would allow officials to interfere with a drone's navigation or signal, take control of it, seize it, stop it from working or destroy it. It also covers machines without anyone on board that operate on land, on the water or underwater. That makes sense. It gives Defence laws that can keep up as technology changes. There are safety rules. Any action must be responsible and reasonably necessary. It must not put aircraft carrying people in danger at airfields regularly used by civilian aircraft. Action to stop a drone must follow procedures that CASA, the aviation safety regulator, has been consulted on. Those rules matter, especially where civilian military aircraft use the same airfield. Protecting a Defence site also means protecting the people around it.

The next step is a clear plan to put these powers to work. That means deciding which places need protection and what protection they need. It means having the right equipment and making sure people are trained to use it. It also means making sure the people on duty know who can give the order to act. Defence, police and aviation authorities will all need to work together. Getting this right could give the people protecting our bases more confidence to act when it matters.

Schedule 3 gives the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force a bigger role in checking how these powers are used. It also requires reporting to the parliament. These checks help the people using the powers and give Australians confidence that they are being used properly. The inspector-general would check how the new rules are working, whether the people are following them and whether their actions are proper. If sensitive information is removed from the annual report presented to parliament, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence must receive the full version. I welcome those checks and balances. Making sure the inspector-general can do this work will help ensure the new rules work as this parliament intended.

Schedule 4 makes changes to the Defence Act and related laws so they work with the new powers. It updates definitions and references. It also brings together rules for civil penalties, infringement notices and court orders to stop breaches. Its purpose is to make sure the new rules fit with the rest of the law. Schedule 5 renumbers the parts of the Defence Act and updates references in other Commonwealth laws. This makes the act easier to follow. Schedule 6 makes a small related correction to a reference in the proposed Aviation Consumer Protection Act 2026. It only takes effect if the relevant aviation provision starts. These final schedules help the rest of the changes work properly.

The document explaining the bill says Defence is expected to put these changes in place using existing resources. The focus must be on making this work for the people and the businesses who rely on the new rules. Defence needs to make sure its people have the right equipment and training and the new powers are used properly. It should explain how it will do this with its current staff and budget so the parliament can track its progress. We want to see more defence work done on drone safety here in Australia. We want the people protecting our bases to understand their powers and have protections they need. Those changes could make a real difference for our serving personnel.

Throughout this work, Defence should keep listening to the people on the ground. Listen to the soldiers, the sailors and the aviators who use the equipment. Listen to the people who maintain it. Listen to the businesses trying to build and deliver it. Their experience can help make these changes work from the start and show where more needs to be done. I want Australian businesses to have a clear path to building the equipment and technology Defence needs here at home. I want the people guarding our bases to have the legal powers and equipment they need to protect them. Above all, I want the men and women of the ADF to know that their safety is being taken seriously. This bill gives us a chance to improve the protection and to support the Australian businesses behind our Defence Force. I welcome these changes.

Throughout this bill process, there are things that we need to highlight. I'm sure in the public hearing on Friday that it will be highlighted. That's around different ways that information is gathered by Defence and the technology that will be implemented and how long information is kept, where it's stored and who can access it. There are parts in the bill that say that the minister has to be confident that information that is being gathered has been gathered in accordance with the act but also not gathered for intelligence gathering, not gathered for any other agencies, and for information that is collected to be a part of a capability test and then therefore will be deleted. It did raise concerns when I read it, because this bill has been pushed through quite quickly. It's more than 240 pages. It's quite large. There's a big explanatory memorandum. There are all these moving parts, and the defence committee got it late. When this kind of process moves quickly, it makes me wonder why.

I know that one part of the bill is talking about drone defence; that's very important. We've seen reports that have been over RAAF Base Williamtown and other military bases where we've seen incursions of drones swarming. We haven't heard much come out from the government about where they've come from, who's been operating it or whether any sensitive data has been breached. We've got our fast jets there. We don't know if they've been filmed. We don't know if our defence personnel have had their faces filmed and then been followed back to their homes. We don't know who operated these drones. I think for transparency we should.

This bill will allow a fast move to get drone defence on bases. The Australian Federal Police have the ability to do drone defence, but in places like Townsville we don't have a large presence of Australian Federal Police, but we have the largest garrison city in the country, so allowing Defence Force members to be trained to use counterdrone technology is a good thing. When you think of counterdrone technology, it's not just shotguns. We're talking about other ways that you can remove a drone from the air, whether it's through laser, whether it's through pressure or whether it's through cyber, where they can hack in and then put the drone on the ground. And then you think, 'Where does the drone go?' It drops to the ground, so you've got to do it in a way that isn't over people's homes and isn't over important equipment. What rules are in place for when you're using these technologies? If you're using rifles or a shotgun, there's a thing called a trace. Where does the projectile land if you missed? All these things come into play.

Our Australian Defence Force men and women know how to do this. They are well trained, very smart and well equipped. But we need the frameworks in place to make sure that it is legislatively tight and good but also gives them the ability to act in the way that they need. Those kinds of questions have been on my mind, and many others have reached out to me around the country going, 'What happens if a drone comes overhead? What happens if there's a swarm of 30 plus? Where's the origin? Where did they come from? How do you take them out of the sky?'

These are emerging technologies that Australia is developing and that other nations are developing. You need to be one step ahead of the game all the time because, as we develop it, the bad actors develop another way. As many people would know, certain drones that you will buy from your local store will have exclusion flight zones where they can't actually fly over certain areas—military bases, airports and the like. The ones that are doing it, the ones that are going over the fence, the ones that are going into our military bases—that means that they are either have no chip in them or they potentially could be bad actors.

When a drone goes over a RAAF base, whether it's at Williamtown, whether it's in Darwin or Townsville—Townsville is a dual airport. The Royal Australian Air Force manage it. They run it, but it is also a civilian airport, and they work really well together, but, when a drone goes overhead there, the potential of risk and the potential to ground flights become quite high, and then you have to stop the drone from being overhead and all these other complexities that come with it. It is quite substantial, so it is very important that our technology can pick up early detection of drones where they take off, their point of origin and land them, whatever mechanism they use, and that we put them down in a place that's safe, not on someone's house, not on the runway. Put them down where they need to.

If you look at what's happening around the world—look at Ukraine, for example—those drones have bang on them. They've got explosive ordnance on them, so, if you shoot down a drone with explosive ordnance, it blows up where it lands. I'm not suggesting that any of the drone incursions that have happened in Australia have any bang on them, but what I'm saying is you have to act like they would. We can't be complacent here, and we must also protect bases like we would if we were on operations. If you've seen what's happened in the war in Ukraine, they can daisy chain 30, 40 or 50 drones all at once. They can also do unmanned drones that are on the ground. They can daisy chain them. This becomes a significant threat. It's changed the way that we do war and changed the way that we've done battle now and how we see that we could be fighting in a war. Drones are the threat. Cyber is a threat.

How do you counter it? You make sure that we have the best legislation, the best laws and the best ability to do that. I'm hoping that this bill goes that way. We will be making sure and monitoring this bill and how it progresses into from legislation into law and how we work closely with our state and territory law enforcement and how data is collected and how we're making sure that drone incursions are not happening. I would expect, even though it's been rushed, that the relevant minister at the time, the defence minister, reports on when drone incursions happen over bases. Be transparent with the Australian people. Be transparent with the brave men and women who serve this nation, because it wasn't that long ago when you opened up the paper and it said in there that the tactic to stop the drone collecting sensitive information and sensitive data was to close the blinds. Closing the blinds isn't a protection of the base, its people or the equipment there. It's a massive problem that that we've seen.

This bill that we support and which we'll have a very quick inquiry so it can go to the Senate when they sit next and go through there—we want to make sure that the advice given from the base commander isn't to close the blinds and the advice from Defence to its personnel isn't 'pretend it's not happening' and 'pretend it's not there'. I can tell you how the story broke. They went all the way up to chain, all the way through to the highest, the CDF. All the service chiefs knew about it. It got written to the minister, and nothing happened, so they came to me, and they read me in on what happened. There was a whistleblower, a young serving aviator, and I got CC'd in all the correspondence and showed everything, and I was horrified. I was horrified because no action was taken. I was horrified because the minister and the defence department went, 'Oh, well, it's a police issue.' It's not a police issue. This is a national security threat. With this bill, going forward, I'm hoping we don't get into that position again. We're not talking about a couple of drones here. We're talking thousands of drone incursions around this country that the Australian public didn't know about. We wonder why people don't trust politicians.

Moving forward, it's the coalition's commitment that we will work collaboratively with the government on good policy. We will hold them to account on policy that we don't believe is in the best interests of the nation, but we will not stand in the way of policy that protects our brave men and women and their families. There are many schedules to this bill. It is quite large. I think it's clear that this is a part of a much bigger bill that they've pulled something out of. It's been worked on, I believe, for some time. I do hope, going into the Christmas period and into the start of next year, that this can be up and running and new technologies can be developed and developing. I'd rather get something out there quick and work on it out there than try and make it perfect here, and I'd rather that, if it doesn't work, it fails fast, because, if you fail fast, you can rebuild and keep going.

National security shouldn't have a price tag on it. There shouldn't be a price tag on our brave men and women because we need to keep them safe, keep them in the fight and make sure that they have the best equipment that protects them. They expect their government to act collaboratively, to work together, to debate properly and, most importantly, to remember that they are the reason that we're in here talking about this bill. They're the ones that we're putting first. I just think that, in the very challenging and dynamic and strategic place that we're in now, we need to ensure that we here in this parliament are putting our best foot forward for our service personnel.

Debate adjourned.