Protecting Australia's Defence Heritage Bill 2026
Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (15:41): I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill. Leave granted.
Senator KOVACIC: I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The speech read as follow s — Our military heritage belongs to all Australians.
It belongs to the ANZACs. It belongs to our veterans alive today. It is not the plaything of a political party.
But right now, the Albanese government plans to sell off our priceless military history. And technically, there is nothing stopping them from doing so. They don't have to put it to the Australian people.
They don't have to pass a bill through the other place or here. They can unilaterally dispose of military sites around Australia which have served the ADF and Australia stretching back even before federation. That's an oversight.
And it needs to change. This Bill seeks to do that. This Bill recognises that our military history is an inheritance that belongs to all Australians, and that the government of the day of any party should not be able to sell it off without parliamentary oversight.
On 28 August 2023, the Defence Ministers announced the appointment of two co-leads for the Defence Estate Audit. The Defence Estate Audit was delivered to the Australian Government on 22 December 2023 and on 4 February 2026, a public version of the audit report was released, together with the government's response to its 20 recommendations. The Defence Department was directed to divest 67 Defence sites: full divestment of 64 sites, partial divestment of three sites.
So why is this happening? Not because of strategy. Because of a few bucks.
The only reason this sell off is occurring is that the Albanese government refuses to fund Defence properly. Having squeezed the Defence budget, Labor is now selling the family silver to plug the gap—and treating our military history and heritage like line items on a spreadsheet. Even the arithmetic does not hold up.
The government promises a net $1.8 billion after relocation and remediation costs, but Defence and Finance officials have made it clear in Senate Estimates that these are very indicative estimates only. There is no guarantee this fire sale will net any proceeds once remediation and heritage constraints are completely factored in. What is left is likely to be a pittance in return for a priceless legacy.
And look at what we are being asked to give up. Victoria Barracks Melbourne, where the War Cabinet sat and where Prime Ministers Menzies and Curtin made the decisions that shaped the fate of our nation. Victoria Barracks Sydney, built from Hawkesbury sandstone, in continuous military use for 185 years, and home to Forces Command for generations.
It holds one of the most important collections of Georgian military buildings in Australia. Lancer Barracks, completed in 1820 on Governor Macquarie's orders, is the oldest continuously used military barracks on the Australian mainland. Lancer Barracks has a parade ground where the ashes of fallen soldiers have been scattered, where the Albanese government would be happy for apartment towers to be built on top.
Fort Queenscliff, which has stood guard over the entrance to Port Phillip Bay since 1860—one of the largest and best-preserved coastal artillery forts in the country. HMAS Penguin on Middle Head, commissioned in 1942, still home to around 350 personnel and the Navy's centre for diver training and underwater medicine. These are not old wine cellars.
They are irreplaceable pieces of our national story. But this is about more than history; it is also about our current and future capability. In the current strategic environment, we must behave as though we are in a pre-conflict world.
Serving and former Defence personnel have warned of the serious risks to our preparedness if this mass divestment program goes ahead. When world leaders came to Sydney for APEC in 2007, it was Victoria Barracks that was chosen to stage our special forces and counter-terrorism capability. Sell it, and we will never get it back.
The same is true for Defence sites across the country. HMAS Cerberus in Victoria, is a critical ongoing naval training facility where the government plans to flog off so much land around the base it could affect the firing range and the storage of explosives. In Western Australia, Leeuwin and Irwin Barracks together house all three branches of service.
Irwin Barracks is the Army's main Army Reserve site in Western Australia. It is a critical base for our Reservists, more than 1,000 of whom will be asked to drive up to 50 minutes in traffic to another base to continue serving the ADF. We should not be doing anything to make service in the Reserves harder for ordinary Australians juggling their service with work and family.
That is why I am introducing the Protecting Australia's Defence Heritage Bill 2026 today. . The object of this Private Senator's Bill is to provide parliamentary oversight of Government decisions to dispose of certain Defence estate assets used by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) or the Department of Defence (the Department). It would be left to the Parliament to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether a disposal decision of defence estate land should be disallowed, particularly where the disposal would be detrimental to Australia's national security or strategic capabilities.
This Bill recognises that our Defence heritage belongs to all Australians, and that the Executive Government should not be able to unilaterally sell it off without Parliamentary oversight. The Bill would amend the Lands Acquisition Act 1989 to prohibit certain disposals of freehold interests and significant leases held by Defence in land used by the ADF or the Department of Defence, unless the land has been specified in a legislative instrument ('disposal instrument') by the Finance Minister. .If a disposal instrument is made, the Bill would also require the Minister for Defence to table a statement in Parliament setting out why the Minister is satisfied that the disposal would be in the national interest.
The disposal instrument would be subject to disallowance, therefore creating a new mechanism for parliamentary oversight of divestments in the Defence estate. The Bill will give effect to the recommendations of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee inquiry into the Management of Defence Estate Assets, which called for new legislative powers to oversee divestments of Defence estate assets, and I thank my colleague Senator Collins for her work engaging with communities around the country to deliver those recommendations.
The Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, has said about Victoria Barracks, Sydney, that it was not his priority "to see defence manage the oldest wine cellar in Australia." Then he dismissed his critics as "a few former generals who liked hanging out there." Veterans across this country heard these statements for what they were. Contempt. Contempt for former Generals who have led our Army for decades.
Contempt for the thousands of Australian servicemen and women, of all ranks, who have served this nation at Victoria Barracks, Sydney, for over a century. And while I am sure there are a few eminent, retired Generals amongst those who have signed my petition to end the Albanese Government's Defence heritage fire sale, that doesn't add up to 108,000 and counting.
That is the number of Australians who have signed my petition to stop this government's reckless fire sale of irreplaceable Defence sites. Many are members of the defence community or their families, serving and ex-serving. Still more are everyday Australians who are outraged at this travesty and want to see their endowment preserved.
They are in good company. Last week, General Sir Peter Cosgrove, former Chief of the Defence Force, former Governor-General, the commander who led our forces into East Timor, joined this fight. When the Defence Minister likened Victoria Barracks to an old wine cellar, Sir Peter called it "the most stupid thing I've ever heard." Sir Peter does not enter the fray very often, and his words hold much more weight as a result.
The RSL calls Victoria Barracks Sydney the spiritual home of the Australian Army, and an irreplaceable national asset. RSL Australia's national president, Peter Tinley, a man who served seventeen years in the SAS, has urged the government to take a breath, because once these sites are gone, they are gone forever. And this is not a partisan issue.
The Labor Premier of New South Wales opposes the sale of Victoria Barracks Sydney Independents and Greens have spoken against the sale. Last month, a Senate inquiry recommended the whole scheme be immediately halted. The community has spoken.
Veterans have spoken. The Senate has spoken. The Albanese Government, and its Defence Minister Richard Marles, refuses to listen.
Which is why Parliament needs the power to stop these sales. Otherwise, once these invaluable pieces of our military heritage are sold, they will be gone forever. I commend the bill to the Senate.
Senator KOVACIC: I seek leave to continue my remarks later. Leave granted; debate adjourned.