Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I can indeed advise that the upgrading and the expansion of the Shoalwater Bay training area and the Townsville field training area will provide the Australian Defence Force with important access to modern facilities and will provide increased land and air space for what are very new, very contemporary weapons and equipment, including those outlined in the defence white paper of 2016.

The government, as set out in the white paper and in the integrated investment program, is modernising the systems and the platforms that are used by Army to ensure that our Australian soldiers have the best possible protection and, importantly, have the capability they need for future operations and for future activity and, importantly, that they are trained to do so.

Changes in technology and in war fighting techniques mean that our Army will operate over a much larger area than has been possible previously. Our new fleet of armoured fighting vehicles have sophisticated digital communications and very advanced weapons systems. They fire further; they are more powerful than existing vehicles— (Time expired)