Page 1200 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 4 May 2022

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The reason that it has been brought forward as a motion like this is that Ms Clay is a government member. She came in and made statements that attacked the defence industry sector. She made comments, I think very negatively, about the Australian War Memorial. As she is a government member, I wanted to make sure that it was pretty clear where the Labor Party, the senior partner of the coalition, sat on this.

I must say that I am happy, although Mr Barr has changed the language in the motion that I have moved; I am relieved that these seem to be the comments and the position of the Greens and Ms Clay, as opposed to a lurch to the extreme left by the coalition. I think there is a sense that this is a coalition that has been moving to the left progressively, through the influence of the Greens. I think it is good that the Labor Party, through Mr Barr here today, is holding the line.

I think it is very important that we express support for the War Memorial, for the defence industry, for the ADF, to recognise our complex circumstances. I am not trying to turn this into a quasi-federal parliament. I am not trying to have a strategic debate here, but we must recognise that we are the home of the Australian War Memorial. They are our constituents. We are home to the headquarters of Lockheed Martin, which has been, in my view, vilified by the Greens. We are home to the important defence industry. It creates an enormous amount of benefit for our community, so it is also important, I think, that we recognise its contribution to the ADF and that, equally, there are a lot of ADF members here.

I am very satisfied today, through the comments of Mr Barr, that they have not followed the Greens on this issue. They have followed them on many other issues, but they have not on this issue. So I can indicate that I and my colleagues will be supporting Mr Barr’s amendment.

Question put:

That the amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Amendment agreed to.

MR BRADDOCK (Yerrabi) (3.37), by leave: I move:

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