Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I am really reluctant to continue to entertain questions from senators that really seek to initiate a broad-ranging discussion about defence, foreign affairs and any other matters that are tangentially associated with the bill. I think it is ordinary practice for the government to come and provide answers that are relevant to the bill that is before us, but questions of the overall quantum of Defence spending really are best prosecuted in another forum. I imagine we will talk about them at estimates, and question time occurs later today. There are other forums where this can be canvassed.

I will provide this in the interest of being helpful, Senator, but I really am not intending to open up a broad-ranging debate, because it's not the approach that we ordinarily take in this chamber. You would know that we are investing an additional $10.6 billion over the forward estimates and $57.6 billion over the decade in Defence. We brought $1 billion forward in the forward estimates in our budget in March. These are very significant efforts to improve both the quality and the quantum of our spend in Defence, and, frankly, they represent an important intervention to tidy up a decade of waste, mismanagement and wrong priorities which unfortunately characterised the approach and the chaos that occurred under your government.