STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms CLUTTERHAM (Sturt) (13:46): The export of Australia's world-leading over-the-horizon radar technology is critical for Australian jobs and our national security. This landmark $2.5 billion deal is the largest defence export in Australia's history, and it will support Canada's Arctic over-the-horizon radar, enhancing early-warning and long-range surveillance across the North Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific.

Not only will this further support the national security of Australia and Canada, but the deal will also strengthen Australia's sovereign industrial base; create 1,000 direct and indirect high-skilled, high-paid Australian jobs; and promote broader employment across supply chains by creating new opportunities for local industry. So what is an over-the-horizon radar?

The curvature of the Earth limits the straight-line trajectory of radio waves, and this technology facilitates the travel of those waves beyond just a straight line by bouncing them off a layer of the upper atmosphere and beaming them back down to earth, enabling the surveillance of aircraft or ships that are thousands of kilometres away. Its capability means that aircraft and ships that would otherwise be hidden by the horizon or attempting to fly low to evade conventional radar can be tracked.

As well as strengthening our friendship and partnership with our ally Canada, this deal promotes economic prosperity and national security and forms part of the Albanese Labor government's Future Made in Australia.