David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Defence, Senator Bob Carr. I refer the minister to the recently released 2012-17 defence corporate plan which states, on page 11, that in the 2012-13 budget Defence contributed $5.545 billion to the government fiscal strategy across the forward estimates and that this will necessarily reduce the capabilities that Defence can maintain and the scope of operations that Defence can participate in. Does the minister stand by his earlier statements that these cuts will not hollow out the Defence Force and will not affect Australia's defence capabilities?