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

I thank Senator Patrick for what is a very important question about the government's Defence Export Strategy. We were very pleased to release Australia's first ever defence export strategy last week. The strategy is part of our defence industry policy to deliver the defence capability that is necessary to achieve the strategy which we set out in the 2016 Defence white paper. The definition of 'Australian defence industry', to which Senator Patrick refers, in the Defence Export Strategy reflects the continuity with the 2016 Defence industry policy statement—which I happen to have here because I carry it with me everywhere—and its broad definition of Australia's diverse defence industry base and how Australian industry is considered as part of the Australian Industry Capability Program.

The reason that the defence industry policy statement and the subsequent release of the export strategy is important for Australia is because it demonstrates our ambition for this country—for our defence forces, for our defence industry and for the Australian economy indeed. We think it's an ambitious and positive plan to boost the Australian economy, to increase investment and to create more jobs for Australian businesses. All of that said, what it fundamentally will do is enable us to deliver capability for the ADF.

The strategic goal is to achieve greater export success to build a stronger, more sustainable, more globally competitive Australian defence industry to, as I said, support Australia's defence capability needs. What the strategy does is bring together all of the levers available to government, to Defence and to industry to provide end-to-end support for defence exports, whether that's building defence export readiness, identifying export opportunities and to ultimately realising export outcomes. The companies that export are more successful, they are more profitable, they are more stable and they are more able to support the development of ADF capability. (Time expired)