COMMITTEES

Senator COLLINS (New South Wales—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (18:42): I present an interim report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee on the management of Defence estate assets, together with accompanying documents, and I move: That the Senate take note of the report. On 11 March 2026, the Senate referred the inquiry into the management of Defence estate assets to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, and, as chair, I present the interim report today.

This inquiry examined the planning, management, utilisation and disposal of Defence estate assets, with reference to the alignment of Defence estate planning with defence requirements; the processes for planning and conducting the disposal; the impact on the permanent forces, reserve forces and cadet units; the financial assumptions underpinning the divestment; the impact on the veteran and community connections to sites of military service; and the validity of the audit's findings.

I can tell you that the government absolutely abysmally failed on all accounts. The committee conducted diligent research and witness questioning. We heard from hundreds of witnesses and numerous community, defence and veterans organisations from all around the Australia.

We did the consultations that the government wouldn't do. The committee has visited Defence sites in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania and we have more planned in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. We have received overwhelming evidence pointing at three very clear conclusions: the divestment does not make sense, the work has not been done and the case has not been made.

The committee did not hear from one witness who would recommend the full or partial divestment of the 68 sites listed in the Defence estate audit. The committee did not hear that the divestment would enhance Australia's security and it did not hear evidence that the divestment will help Labor's budget deficits. The Defence estate audit on which this divestment was predicated suffered from political interference to predetermine an outcome.

The Deputy Prime Minister reached a conclusion and then instructed an audit to take place so that it would reach that same conclusion. That audit was undertaken by persons unqualified to audit a corner store, let alone Australia's entire defence posture, so it of course reached un-Australian and illogical conclusions. They were not auditors—they admitted that—and they were not independent—we proved that—so it was not a real review.

The Defence Strategic Review was also manipulated as a justification for this audit, and in fact it did not even recommend it. The Defence Strategic Review said 'invest', not 'divest'. It said to remember the importance of the foundational estate.

Yet, the government did the opposite and said, 'Flog it all off.' The auditors also went beyond the terms of reference in this independent audit review of the defence estate. They started a cultural assault on the Australian Defence Force. They put business process improvements—consultants and bureaucracy are taking over Defence.

They recommended in the audit report to change the defence base names so there was no longer any reference to history or the identities underpinning these wonderful units of ours, these bases, and instead homogenising all the bases to geographic locations. This is the socialist scrubbing of military history and links to His Majesty. Part of the defence minister's rationale for selling bases like Victoria Barracks Sydney was that they were not open enough to the community.

I can tell you that I have been on their tours at Victoria Barracks Sydney. They are open every single week, giving amazing two-hour tours. I was there on Saturday night at Beats at the Barracks, along with about a thousand other people.

It was an amazing night. I'll tell you what: you can walk and chew gum at the same time. These bases are open to the community while remaining fully operational and strategic bases.

The financials do not stack up. There is a false claim that Victoria Barracks Sydney is more expensive to run than Defence Plaza Sydney, where they're trying to cram in all of our serving personnel. They have not done the numbers on the costing of selling the bases or on consolidating, and they will not give us those numbers.

They also haven't done the logistics. We heard evidence time and time again. There is no plan.

There is no plan for a plan. They haven't done the work. They don't know where they're going to put all these people.

Tasmania, we heard, is being abandoned—absolutely abandoned—by this government. Cadets are being abandoned by this government. This government knows what it's going to do to those young people.

Cadets has given some of these kids a second chance at life, and they're taking that away from them. Reserves—they're going to kill reserves and the access to reserves right across the country. There were no consultations whatsoever with the RSLs, with the serving personnel, with the communities attached to these bases or with the veterans either.

They gagged the Defence Force. We went around to the consultations the government wouldn't do, and I'm here to send a very loud message to this government on behalf of all of those people. We say 'no'.

These are fully operational, highly strategic and nationally significant bases, and this is nothing more than a short-sighted cash grab by a government addicted to spending your money on all the wrong things. The committee did not hear that divestment would enhance Australia's security, and it heard no evidence that the divestment will help Labor's budget deficits.

This is an egregious and dangerous undertaking by the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles. He chose to sell the spiritual home of the Army, Victoria Barracks, and the spiritual home of the Air Force, RAAF Base Point Cook. He will crush the cadet corps around the country.

He will remove reserves from accessible locations—all of this, as I said, with no consultation, no plan and no respect. With this government's track record on veterans this year, we should expect no less. This 'cart before the horse' approach exposes the defence of Australia to severe strategic vulnerabilities, and that vulnerability is of this Deputy Prime Minister's making.

The committee found that a significant number of the properties listed for divestment still hold strategic value. Of course they do—the Department of Defence did not recommend their sale for very good reason. The government, the minister, made the decision to put places like Victoria Barracks up for sale and on the chopping block.

As I said, many of these sites are fully operational, highly strategic and nationally significant. They enhance Australia's counterterrorism security posture and provide assistance in natural disasters and major event management. This interim report makes very clear that, by selling all these bases, the government will irreparably damage our Anzac legacy and heritage.

These buildings, these parade grounds, these runways and these training fields are the living link to Australia's military prestige, built by our forebears and made sacred by the legendary Anzac generation that came before us, yet the Deputy Prime Minister would see these places go to ruin. The committee heard compelling evidence that, once these sites are transferred from government ownership, they are often completely destroyed, at best covered in graffiti, or we'll see apartment blocks built on top of these parade grounds right across Australia—our sacred parade grounds.

The committee heard no compelling evidence that the government has a plan for this transitional management nor any assurances that places like Victoria Barracks, Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane, would be protected from foreign property developers or ruin. Prime Minister Albanese's own cultural revolution will be the cultural destruction and the darkest stain on his already poor legacy.

The divestment of our active military bases will reduce Australia's resilience in peacetime for counterterrorism and disaster recovery operations and leaves us exposed in the future with less liability to counter growing strategic threats. The committee heard evidence that the real reason the government's selling off our bases is not investment in the northern security of Australia, as the Defence Strategic Review recommended.

Instead, this committee heard that the gross goal of the sales is to fix a problem not found in defence but at the Expenditure Review Committee. The failure of the Deputy Prime Minister at that committee to get the money he needs for defence capability and investment must not come at the cost of Australia's security nor spit in the face of Australia's connection to fallen Australian war heroes.

The government, throughout the committee's inquiry, has failed time and time again to provide departmental evidence in a concise, timely and respectful manner. Financial evidence has been hidden, strategic rationales have been declined, and the most simple of inquiries have been stonewalled for no good reason. Obstruction is a very good word to describe their participation in this inquiry, and the interim report I tabled today has 11 recommendations, but, most importantly, the committee adopted recommendation No. 1 number one, demanding that the Australian government immediately halt the mass divestment program of Australia's foundational defence estate.

I call on the government today, for the first time throughout their campaign to sell off our strategic assets, to listen. Listen to the Australian people as we have done. Do not sell these defence assets.

We must protect them from the government that is hell bent on ripping out— (Time expired)