Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade’s report, Review of the Defence Annual Report 2008-09, is interesting to read. More importantly, that annual report of the Department of Defence is particularly interesting. I certainly do not claim to be an expert on foreign affairs, defence or trade but I have had the privilege of being appointed recently to the joint standing committee and I appreciate the advices and briefings that have already been given. Since parliament last sat I have had the opportunity of experiencing firsthand some of the great people we have in the defence forces of Australia. When you have some association with those directly involved you cannot help but feel confident of Australia’s security into the future.

I was recently at the naval base HMAS Cairns and was delighted to be able to have a look around at the good work being done at that base and to see how the Armidale class patrol boats there are operated. I was interested to learn—perhaps a lot of people knew this; I was not really aware of it—that for every two patrol boats you need three complete crews. A lot of those crews comprise reservists. Without those reservist naval officers the operations of our patrol boat fleet would be much more difficult. Those who watch the television show Sea Patrol and those who understand from firsthand experience the good work of those patrol boats will know that they are always on the job protecting our borders and trying to keep some sort of control on our borders. Regrettably, because of the actions of the Labor government, people who would come to our country in ways that are not regular or lawful understand that the Labor government are very soft on border protection and allow anyone in who wants to get on a leaky boat and who has the substantial sum of money to pay the people smugglers to get here.

The patrol boats do a great job in difficult circumstances and it is great to see them operational. But the impact of reservists cannot be understated. Without those reservists we would have difficulty in putting our patrol boats to sea. That is why I am concerned—and this is referred to in the annual report—that because of cutbacks by the Labor government it appears there may well be cutbacks to reservists in all our armed services. That, to me, could substantially reduce the effectiveness of all three services that currently do such good work in protecting Australia. At some stage I want to say more about that issue; suffice to say at this time that I certainly hope the government will seriously reconsider any actions which might lead to a diminution of the numbers in the reserve forces that help to protect Australia. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.