Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence) Bill 2025

Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (13:02): I have heard some remarkable statements in my life, but to suggest that the PJCIS has robust debate—there was a landmark moment some time last year when, for the first time in 20 years, there was actually a dissenting opinion. I think it's only happened once. Everyone thought the sky would fall down, because the members of the PJCIS had been in agreement and had had unanimous recommendations every single time for two decades!

That's the kind of robust debate you get in North Korean politics. That's the kind of robust debate you get in Donald Trump's America. If you speak out against him, you get sued.

That's the kind of robust debate that Labor wants in this committee. To suggest that that is robust debate is genuinely embarrassing. The TEMPORARY CHAIR ( Senator Sterle ): I won't take that as a question.

Senator Chandler?