Ellie Whiteaker (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to add my strong support to the Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence) Bill 2025. This bill represents an important step forward for this parliament. It strengthens our ability to scrutinise some of the most serious, complex and consequential decisions any government can make—decisions about defence policy, military capability, major procurement and, in the gravest of circumstances, the commitment of Australian forces to conflict. These are no ordinary policy questions. They involve immense public resources and consideration of long-term horizons, strategic risk and, most importantly, the lives and the wellbeing of the women and men of the Australian Defence Force and the civilians impacted by these decisions. It is entirely appropriate that this parliament equips itself with the right structures to examine those matters with care, depth and seriousness.

The creation of this committee responds directly to the recommendations of the inquiry undertaken by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade into international armed conflict decision-making. That inquiry identified a clear gap. While parliament debates defence policy and scrutinises defence expenditure through existing processes, it has not had a dedicated mechanism to examine defence strategy, capacity and operations in a way that allows access to important classified information. That gap matters. In the strategic environment we face, many of the most important questions about defence cannot be meaningfully examined using only publicly available information. The details that shape capability choices, operational risk, contingency planning and the conduct of operations are often classified for good reason. Without access to that material, parliamentary scrutiny is necessarily partial.

This new committee is designed to address that reality. It is modelled on the established and respected framework of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. That committee has shown that it is possible for members of parliament from across parties and from both houses to receive and consider highly sensitive information while maintaining the test of agencies and protecting our national security. This bill extends that proven model into the defence portfolio.

Let me be clear: this is not about expanding the parliament into operational decision-making. This committee will not direct the Australian Defence Force or make decisions about deployments. It will not override the prerogatives of our executive government. Those important constitutional settings remain unchanged. What this committee will do is strengthen parliament's capacity to understand, to question and to scrutinise.

The functions of this new committee are broad and forward looking. They include examining defence strategy and planning documents, scrutinising capability development and major acquisitions, being apprised of war or warlike operations and monitoring significant non-conflict operations at home and abroad. The committee will also consider matters relating to defence personnel and veterans and the performance and independence of key oversight bodies, such as the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. That matters because defence is about our people, our Australian people. It is about the responsibilities we carry towards those we ask to serve and the way we manage the risks that they are exposed to. Strong parliamentary scrutiny is part of that duty of care.

Senate committees will continue to examine defence legislation and budgets through established processes, including Senate estimates. Other statutory committees will retain their roles. But this bill will complement those existing mechanisms.

The key innovation in this bill is that the new committee will be able to receive classified briefings and information, subject to clear and robust safeguards. It is those safeguards that make this workable. Defence agencies and our international partners must have confidence that sensitive operational information, intelligence-derived material and details about highly sensitive capabilities will be managed appropriately. This bill provides that framework with private proceedings, with defined categories of protected information, with ministerial authorisation being required before certain highly sensitive materials can be compelled or disclosed and, importantly, with offences for the unauthorised disclosure of information obtained through the committee's work. Some might see these provisions as focused on the limits, but I see them as enablers. Without strong legal protections, agencies will be understandably reluctant to share the information that gives scrutiny its real substance. With those protections in place, the committee can operate in a way that is both responsible and effective.

It is also worth making another important point. Scrutiny conducted in private is not lesser scrutiny and, in many cases, is more searching. When witnesses are able to speak frankly in a secure setting, without the pressure of public performance, members can ask the hard questions, assumptions can be tested and risks can be explored in detail.

This committee also represents a step forward in the institutional maturity of our parliament. Defence planning and capability development are long-term endeavours. They extend beyond the electoral cycle. They involve investments measured by decades and decisions whose consequences will be felt by future governments and future generations of Australians. A standing joint committee with secure access to information provides continuity. It allows the parliament, across party lines, to build deeper expertise and institutional memory in this field. That continuity strengthens democratic accountability. It ensures that scrutiny of major defence decisions is sustained and informed.

I want to acknowledge the direct connection to the work already being undertaken in this parliament by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and, in particular, the Defence Subcommittee, chaired by my colleague Senator O'Neill. I am very lucky to be a member of that committee. Through that committee, I have seen closely the work involved in scrutinising the current defence policy settings and capability development and our important role in the region. The work of that committee really matters. It builds on the practical work of parliamentarians and the executive, who have been grappling with the limits of existing arrangements. But we understand that a deeper and more structured scrutiny is needed. The inquiry that led to the recommendation to establish this committee came from sustained engagement by members of that committee, who saw both the importance of defence oversight and the constraints of trying to do that work without access to classified information.

It would be remiss of me to talk about defence in this place without talking about our great state of Western Australia and the importance of Western Australia to this government's defence strategy. Western Australia is not peripheral to Australia's defence posture; it is central to it. I've spoken here before about my local community, which is absolutely central to our government's defence work and absolutely central to the defence of the AUKUS partnership. From HMAS Stirling and the growing strategic importance of the Indian Ocean to the infrastructure and workforce that will support the future of our conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine enterprise, my local community of Henderson is central to that work. Western Australia is at the heart of some of the most significant defence developments underway in this country.

Decisions about capability, basing, sustainment and long-term investment, decisions that will shake the jobs, the skills, the industry and the local communities in Western Australia for decades to come, deserve the scrutiny of a committee like this. Western Australians deserve to know that these vast, complex and long-term decisions are being scrutinised carefully, with access to the right information, not only by the executive but by the parliament as well. A dedicated parliamentary joint committee on defence will help ensure that the national interests and the interests of communities, like mine, that host and support major defence activities are being examined in a serious, informed and sustained way. This bill has real significance for my home state of Western Australia and the local community in which I live—a place that is playing an increasingly central role to Australia's defence and strategic future.

Around the world, trust in public institutions is under strain. Complex policy areas, particularly national security, can easily drift further away from public understanding. Never has parliamentary oversight been more important. Creating structures that allow elected representatives to engage seriously and responsibly with these issues is part of keeping our system healthy and robust.

This bill does not solve every question about war powers or defence governance, and it does not attempt to. What it does do is make a practical, carefully designed improvement to the way this parliament performs its oversight and scrutiny role. It responds to considered recommendations. It draws on an existing model that has proven to be effective through the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. It balances transparency with the protection of national security. It strengthens our capacity to honour the responsibilities we carry towards the Australian people and the members of the Australian Defence Force. For all of those reasons, I commend this bill to the Senate and support its passage.