Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Defence's contribution to the government's fiscal strategy will have no adverse impact on the operations that should concern us all in this house without trying to extract party political advantage from them—that is, operations in Afghanistan, East Timor or the Solomon Islands. There are a range of administrative and minor capital equipment savings that are going to be made and a number of lower priority capability projects that will be deferred, with a small number cancelled where they have been superseded by alternative capabilities, and other capability and facility programs will be subjected to rescoping. The reprioritisation of defence expenditure has been designed to have minimum impact on the delivery of core defence capabilities. The provision of equipment to defence personnel on operations will not be adversely affected and there will be no adverse impact on the number of military personnel in the Australian Defence Force. The decisions taken to determine Defence's contribution— (Time expired)