Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

You will get your turn in a minute, Senator Feeney. For the Minister for Foreign Affairs to say in the Senate last week that 'there will be no adverse impact on operations—they are all fully funded' is ridiculous. It is like saying: 'We're sending the Australian Olympic team to London. When they're there they'll have all the resources that they need but when they get back to Australia there will be no money for training. There will be no money for recruiting and there will be no money for the things that drive our level of excellence in sport.' It is preposterous to suggest that we can make the kinds of cuts, $25 billion worth of cuts, in the defence budget that this government is making and pretend that they do not affect frontline operations of the Australian Defence Force. Of course they do and only, with respect, fools would maintain that somehow these cuts are not affecting the frontline of Australia's defence, particularly in operations like Afghanistan. We have the midyear economic statement to come in which we can expect more of the same. You need more money, you have to make big cuts to get your mythical surplus back into some kind of pretend reality and there will be more cuts to come in this budget. It is an absolutely deplorable situation. The men and women in uniform know that as well. Senator Bishop, I challenge you to cite a single authority that has endorsed your approach to the defence cuts in this budget.