House of Representatives on Monday 1st July 2024

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By leave—I move amendments (1) to (3) as circulated in my name together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 2, page 6 (line 22) to page 7 (line 6), omit subsections 110ABA(2) and (3), substitute:

(2) The Committee is to consist of 13 Committee members and must include at least:

(a) 2 Government Senators; and

(b) 2 Opposition Senators; and

(c) 2 Government members of the House of Representatives; and

(d) 2 Opposition members of the House of Representatives.

(3) The Committee is to consist of:

(a) 7 members of the Government; and

(b) 6 members of the Opposition.

Note: For more detailed provisions on the appointment of Committee members, see Division 5.

(2) Schedule 1, item 2, page 21 (lines 13 to 16), omit subsection 110AEA(2), substitute:

(2) Before nominating the members, the Prime Minister must consult with the Leader of the Opposition.

(3) Schedule 1, item 2, page 21 (lines 21 to 29), omit subsections 110AEA(4) and (5), substitute:

(4) Before nominating the members, the Leader of the Government in the Senate must consult with the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

I move these amendments on behalf of the coalition to safeguard the integrity of this proposed Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence. This is a committee where important and sensitive national security matters will be discussed. It will be a committee bound by secrecy provisions to protect information that is vital to Australia's national interest. It will have access to information that needs to be protected in peace and especially safeguarded in war. Therefore, the membership of the joint defence committee must be selective—because of the obligation to protect sensitive information in the Australian national interest.

As a baseline, we must have a committee membership that is committed to defending the Australian people with lethal force if necessary. We must have a committee membership that supports and upholds our alliances, including with democratic partners like the United States and Israel, and we must have a committee membership that will protect sensitive information from our strategic adversaries. This is a modest but hugely consequential standard that we seek to uphold in the moving of these amendments. It reflects the long-held and practised consensus and convention of the two major parties that have governed Australia since the end of the Second World War, and, with the emergence of new threats and a new strategic disorder across the globe, it must now be insisted upon and codified in legislation.

We cannot risk the Greens becoming members of the joint defence committee, as they fail on all three tests that I have outlined. The Greens are ambivalent about military power as a precondition for a stable and lasting peace, the Greens wish to sever our alliances with the US and Israel, and the Greens celebrate the radical transparency that Julian Assange popularised with his reckless leaking of classified documents. Such people are not to fit to govern, nor are they fit to serve on this joint defence committee.

This joint defence committee is for parties of government and should be restricted to those capable of governing Australia. This amendment makes that crystal clear by preventing the Greens and like-minded crossbenchers from serving on the joint defence committee. We move this amendment in the Australian national interest, and, if it does not pass, we will vote against the government's bill.

I note that members on both sides of the House believe in the merits of this joint defence committee and the increased accountability and transparency that it will bring, particularly in times of war, when we have troops in the field, sailors at sea or aviators in the air, and questions need to be asked of strategy.

I also note the fine contributions in the House by members on both sides, including the member for Wentworth, who is eminently sensible on security matters. But I will leave it to the government to explain how they will safeguard our nation's secrets if they persist in leaving open the door of membership to radical Green activists in our parliament.