"On the side of the House, we understand deeply the complexities of defending our country and the detail which underpins that important endeavour. We understand the vital importance of our defence industry not only for capability development, not only from the perspective of sovereign capabilities but also for growth and job creation."

Federation Chamber - Private Members' Business - Defence Industry

Monday 8 August 2023

I'm pleased to be able to rise to speak to this private member's motion. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to discuss all the good work the Albanese government is doing in defence, contracting and procurement. At the same time, I am perplexed; the member of the Petrie's motion seems to have forgotten the last decade. The motion decries the fact that our government has initiated reviews into Defence and defence procurement. This ignores the fact that these reviews remain necessary due to the shameful mismanagement in this space by the government of which the member was part.

On the side of the House, we understand deeply the complexities of defending our country and the detail which underpins that important endeavour. We understand the vital importance of our defence industry not only for capability development, not only from the perspective of sovereign capabilities but also for growth and job creation. Indeed, I understand these issues well. It's no secret that I worked for many years for Professionals Australia, the union representing white-collar defence industry workers. I worked closely with Defence workers across the economy and at almost every level of the procurement and manufacturing process. I saw first-hand the atrophy and drift the previous government inflicted on the defence industry sector. The lack of action and the lack of direction left industry players at a loss and unable to make plans or see a future for themselves here. Our defence industry workforce found itself in a directionless state. I found this situation utterly frustrating and unacceptable, as did many of my colleagues. That's why we came into government with a commitment to fix our defence posture and our defence industry policy, and that's exactly what we have been doing.

Let's not forget the absolute mess in defence industry and procurement that we inherited upon taking government last year. The ANAO told us in October last year that a series of projects are facing major delays and budget blowouts. The combined value of these projects comes to more than $69 billion. As defence expert John Blaxland put it today, defence procurement has been 'messy, expensive and inefficient'. What are some of these projects? One is the Hunter class frigate program, beset by major delays in the start of construction to the tune of four years, with a $15 billion blowout in costs, all hidden by those opposite when they were in government. Another is the C-27J Spartan battlefield airlifters. This capability was delivered four years late, and, despite their name, the C-27J Spartan battlefield airlifters cannot actually fly into a battlefield. Then we have the offshore patrol vessel project, a critical capability for our border security. This project is already one year behind schedule. Similarly, the evolved Cape class patrol boats are a year late, the new battlefield command system is three years behind schedule, and then there are defence satellite communications projects, which are running up to four years behind schedule. These projects are all critical to our security and enhanced defence capabilities. Their successful and timely completion are critical to the security of the country. A policy and culture of atrophy and drift from those opposite let these and other projects wither.

This drift not only jeopardised our security but robbed our domestic defence industry of the certainty needed to make contract and investment decisions. When the member for Petrie complains about the challenges facing Australia's defence industry and looks for someone to blame, I'd suggest he find a mirror. Indeed, he is part of a government that had six defence ministers in nine years. Their record on the question is one of abject failure. It is a failure that we are here to correct. The Albanese government is committed to ending the drift and atrophy in Defence and building and strengthening our domestic defence industry. We will enhance and strengthen our defence industry by giving it clarity and guidance. We'll give it clarity and guidance through our soon-to-be-released defence industry development strategy. Through this, we will grow our sovereign industrial base and provide more opportunities to our defence industry to participate in a meaningful way in big projects like AUKUS. We are getting on with fixing the mess left by those opposite. Stunts like this private member's motion just demonstrate that they have learnt nothing.