Page 3514 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 23 November 2021

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The Assembly voted—

Question resolved in the negative.

Amendment 4 negatived.

Amendments 5 to 7 agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

Australian Defence Force—funding

MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (3.31): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the ACT is home to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) headquarters and approximately 8000 ADF and 7000 Australian Public Service Defence personnel;

(b) the ACT is home to approximately 26 000 ADF Veterans;

(c) the economic contribution of the Defence industry to the ACT and surrounding region is $4.3 billion Gross State Product and 25 000 defence-related jobs;

(d) Australia faces an uncertain security environment;

(e) the Greens have pledged to cut defence spending by $300 billion over a decade which would halve the Defence budget;

(f) defence cuts of this magnitude would place ADF personnel at significantly increased risk in future conflicts and compromise the ability to defend Australia;

(g) defence cuts of this magnitude would be devastating to the ACT economy and cause thousands of lost jobs; and

(h) the Greens plan to form coalition government with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and hold the balance of power in the Senate and will “be pushing for it [ADF cuts] as much as possible”;

(2) further notes the:

(a) Federal ALP has described the Greens’ plan as “delusional”; and

(b) Government has described the plan as “dangerous”; and

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