Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Defence Housing Australia Amendment Bill 2025. At the outset, let me say that the coalition supports the government's bill. We neither seek to refer this bill to a committee nor seek to delay its passing. This bill amends the Defence Housing Australia Act 1987. Under the current act, Defence Housing Australia can provide housing and housing related services to the following: to members of our Defence Force, to departmental staff, to defence contractors and to the families of the aforementioned. This bill expands the categories of persons who can be provided housing and housing related services by Defence Housing Australia to the following: to members of a foreign military, to officials of a foreign country, to contractors engaged by a foreign military or government, to representatives of Australian charities and to the families of the aforementioned.

In more immediate and practical terms, this bill facilitates the accommodation of nuclear powered submarine crews from the United States and United Kingdom on our soil. These crews will operate out of Western Australia's HMAS Stirling on a rotational basis from 2027. Indeed, a small cohort of advancing personnel from the United States will arrive in this quarter, whom we look forward to warmly welcoming.

This bill underpins AUKUS. This bill operationalises AUKUS. This bill strengthens AUKUS. That's why the coalition endorses this bill. With their long-range strike, deterrence and stealth capabilities, nuclear powered submarines are among the most valued assets in the arsenals of our key allies. In the years ahead, they will be one of Australia's most valued assets too.

The secrets of nuclear powered submarines must be closely guarded. This bill will result in a greater presence of foreign individuals on our soil with access to defence facilities. Most of these people will be officials or service men and women of our allies and thus imminently trustworthy. However, when it comes to contractors of foreign countries and charity workers, there are, of course, additional risks. The Director-General of Security said the following during the 26th Annual Hawke Lecture:

Australia's defence sector is a top intelligence collection priority for foreign governments seeking to blunt our operational edge, gain insights into our operational readiness and tactics, and better understand our allies' capabilities.

Targets include maritime and aviation-related military capabilities, but also innovations with both commercial and military applications.

And with AUKUS, we are not just defending our sovereign capability. We are also defending critical capability shared by and with our partners.

Mr Burgess's remarks are a call for greater vigilance. Under this bill, more people will be able to access our defence facilities, and with more access comes more risk.

Accordingly, in endorsing this bill, the coalition puts on the record the following expectation: the government undertake rigorous security checks on all who will be working on or stationed close to our defence facilities. Such screenings are necessary to protect our assets and our secrets, as well as those of our allies. Indeed, were the capabilities of our allies to be compromised on our soil, the fallout would be an erosion of trust of such magnitude that AUKUS itself could be put in jeopardy.

As anticipated, the Greens have proposed an amendment to this bill that would omit the new categories eligible for Defence housing. The Greens want to torpedo this bill, because, well, they want to sink AUKUS. That comes as no surprise to any of us. On this important piece of defence legislation, this chamber has again been given a window into aspects of the modern Greens party—first, their strategic ignorance; and second, their animosity towards our allies, fuelled by their anti-Westernism. The coalition resoundingly rejects the Greens proposed amendment.

This is my first time speaking on a Defence bill in this chamber in my capacity as a shadow minister in the Defence portfolio. In the context of discussing this bill, it's important to make a few points to inform our national debate on defence. Many Australians hear about important defence developments. They hear about AUKUS. They hear about Australia acquiring nuclear powered submarines from the United States and frigates from Japan. They hear about Exercise Talisman Sabre, where our Defence Force trained alongside those 18 other nations. But Australians don't hear often enough why these things matter. Why are alliances important? Why is acquiring cutting-edge defence weapons important? Why is exercising with partners important? Put simply, strength matters—the strength of our alliances, the strength of our capabilities, the strength of our preparedness. Strength helps maintain peace in our region—a peace that has been the motor of human progress. Strength helps deter aggression. Strength helps us to defend our home and to protect our sovereign interests. Make no mistake; strength is paramount to deal with a great danger of our age. And that's the danger posed by the Communist Party of China.

Since the second decade of this century, the Chinese Communist Party has been defined by key features—its military build-up at speed and scale, not for self-defence but to exert power; its willingness to flex its military muscles to intimidate; and its disrespect for the sovereignty of other nations. The Chinese Communist Party has militarised islands in the South China Sea. Its coastguard has harassed the Philippines. Its air force has intruded into Japan's airspace. Its navy has tested weapons off the east coast of Australia without notifying us. We cannot ignore the rehearsal nature of that exercise or the fact that its missiles can strike Australian bases and civilian infrastructure. Its forces have also endangered our servicemen and servicewomen through reckless and aggressive manoeuvres on multiple occasions.

One of President Xi's goals, in his words, is to 'reunify' China and Taiwan. He has not ruled out using force if necessary, and he has instructed his forces to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Defence specialists, foreign affairs experts and China analysts have repeatedly sounded the alarm not only about the Chinese Communist Party's revisionist agenda but about its desire to dominate the region. If you don't believe the specialists, the experts or the analysts, then President Xi's own words make clear his ambitions.

There's a litany of examples of the Chinese Communist Party causing tensions across our region, but, with his six-day visit to China, Prime Minister Albanese would have Australians believe there's nothing to see here. Moreover, by drawing a false equivalence between the Chinese navy's live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea and our own navy's activities in the South China Sea, our prime minister did the unthinkable. He condoned behaviours of the Chinese Communist Party that should have been vociferously and publicly condemned. Under this government, there has been a noticeable reluctance to call out the Chinese Communist Party's hostility. If a is threat disregarded, downplayed or left undiscussed by the government, two things happen. First, Australians are unlikely to appreciate the threat. Second, they're unlikely to understand the need for policy responses or, indeed, support them. That's why I will regularly and directly call out the hostile activities of the Chinese Communist Party.

The more Australians understand the dangers posed by the Chinese Communist Party, the more they will appreciate our nation's urgent need to bolster Defence. Predictably, our opponents will accuse us of beating the drums of war or playing politics or fearmongering. But it's not fearmongering to point out irrefutable facts. The government's resort to such smears has become a convenient excuse—an excuse for the Albanese government to not put money where their mouth is when it comes to Defence. Defence spending under Labor remains woefully inadequate at around two per cent of GDP. Projects have been cancelled or deferred to pay for the nuclear powered submarines. Critical capabilities from the government's own Defence strategic review are now not funded at all or are underfunded.

As for the bill before us, it expands Defence Housing Australia's responsibilities, but it comes without any new investment for housing. The shadow defence minister aptly said in the other place:

This government continues to legislate ambition without resourcing it.

The shadow defence minister was also right in his observation:

This bill will be the first operational test of AUKUS on Australian soil.

Indeed, there is a correlation between Australia's ability to house our allies and the success of AUKUS. I fear this government is in denial. They're in denial about the threats to regional stability. They're in denial about what we must do to deter aggression and defend our nation. They're in denial about the urgent need to lift defence spending.

Diplomacy is important, of course, but this government has the naive view that authoritarian regimes will behave like democracies. The Minister for Defence often bemoans that China's massive military build-up has occurred without transparency or strategic reassurance. The truth is, as history teaches us, the best deterrence of aggression is strength: the strength of our alliances, the strength of our capabilities and the strength of our preparedness. It's beyond time for the Albanese government to get serious about strengthening defence, and that necessary resolve is reflected in the second reading amendment circulated in my name.

Our sovereignty is not undermined by alliances; rather, strong alliances underpin our sovereignty. With almost 300 days having passed since the US election, our prime minister must make the effort to meet President Trump. He must put his personal qualms about the President to one side, just as past presidents and prime ministers have done. He must act in our national interest and re-energise the alliance. If this government truly believes in a free, open and stable Indo-Pacific, then it must quickly come to realise which major power stands for those goals and which power wants to shatter those goals.

The coalition have committed to lifting defence spending to three per cent of GDP, and we urge the government to do the same. That's the bare minimum of what's required to deliver the capabilities we need.

In recent weeks the government made one of its few fine decisions on defence. It selected Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to build the Royal Australian Navy's future fleet of 11 general-purpose frigates. The coalition welcomes this announcement, but this decision should not detract from the urgent need to strengthen our sovereign industrial base. We need to be manufacturing our own missiles in their thousands to deter and to defend. We need to build swarms of drones and counterdrone technologies. We need to be churning out autonomous underwater vehicles. We need to be hardening our military bases, especially in the north. We need to ensure more than 7,000 people enlist in the ADF each year, especially when there are 75,000 applicants. But we can't do any of these things if there's insufficient money behind them. And we can't adequately house our allies if there's no new money behind this bill.

I say it again: it's beyond time for the Albanese government to get serious about strengthening defence. Moving from rhetoric to readiness requires resources. I commend this bill, and I move the second reading amendment circulated in my name:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate notes:

(a) that the strategic environment facing Australia is the most challenging since the Second World War, requiring increased investment in national defence capability;

(b) that the credibility of the AUKUS partnership depends on Australia's ability to deliver housing and infrastructure for allied personnel in a timely and secure manner;

(c) that the Bill expands Defence Housing Australia's responsibilities without any additional funding or a supply-side housing strategy to support defence families or allied personnel;

(d) the importance of strengthening Australia's alliances with the United States and the United Kingdon through delivery—not just declarations; and

(e) the urgent need for the Government to commit to increasing defence expenditure to at least 3 per cent of GDP, and to deliver the enabling capabilities required to protect Australia's prosperity, security, and way of life".