Page 46 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2019
P. 46

DEFENCE BUSINESS
VIEW FROM CANBERRA
Election season is upon us
A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT | CANBERRA
The inimitable Christopher Pyne is leaving politics, ending a 26-year career in federal parliament on a high note.
In his capacity as both Defence Industry and then Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne has been tireless in efforts to support Australian defence industry.
Every election is preceded by resignation announcements from every side as politi- cians consider their options, the endless days and nights away from family, airline food and never satisfied constituents, and think ‘do I really need another three years of this?”
At time of writing, seven from Labor, six Liberals, four Nationals and one indepen- dent were chucking it in. There will be more.
But will Labor win? The polls certainly suggest so, but so they did in 1973 for the coalition when John Hewson expected to romp home against a deeply unpopular Paul Keating.
There are issues on which Labor is vulner- able to a good scare campaign on issues such as dividend franking, negative gearing and Labor union associations. And the 2019 election surely won’t be fought as nicely as Malcolm Turnbull tried in 2016 and came very close to losing.
But as in 1993, a coalition victory this election would surely just delay the inevi- table, with Labor triumphing in 2022.
So assuming Labor wins, Richard Marles will become defence minister and in the de- fence space, the coalition will be left with – not that much.
Pyne will be gone, along with the coali- tion’s most recent experience of defence and its many intricate and complex issues. Linda Reynolds will be there and maybe destined for the shadow defence minister slot.
Pyne’s predecessor Marise Payne will be around but more at home in the foreign affairs space and being in the Senate, well positioned to shadow Labor foreign affairs minister designate Penny Wong.
Also likely to be gone will be NSW Lib- eral Senator Jim Molan, a former Army of- ficer who reached the rank of major general. He’s been bumped to an unwinnable spot on the NSW coalition Senate ticket. His deep knowledge of defence and forthright commentary will be missed.
That does leave a couple of maybes.
Andrew Hastie is a former member of the SASR and, being elected in 2015, is a relative newcomer to politics. Then there’s Kevin Andrews, former defence minis- ter under Tony Abbott. He was elected in 1991, making him the longest continuously serving MP.
AS your correspondent has noted previously, he will miss the energetic member for Sturt, a politician who proved a capable minister, first in the defence industry portfolio and then as defence minister, quite contrary to the expectations of a few of his colleagues.
Those journalists who enjoyed the occasion- al glass in his company appreciated his robust good humour and endearing ability to laugh at himself. We may not see his kind again.
The minister chucked it in shortly after defence industry minister Steve Ciobo, who held the position for a mere six months, hardly enough time to meet and greet the various industry CEOs, let alone get across a complex portfolio.
There was a view among some insiders that he never really had his heart in the job - if he did he might have stuck it out to the election, rather than depart to the backbench. It may be that he didn’t have all that much work to do, considering how comprehensively Chris- topher Pyne dominated this space.
The new defence industry minister is WA Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds, the first female member of the Army Reserve to achieve star rank. She’s also the first female to hold the defence industry portfolio, and,
considering the expectation that Labor will comfortably win the next election, likely the last for a while. Senator Reynolds has maybe two months to get across her new job.
Previously, Labor has expressed its disin- clination to continue with a separate defence industry portfolio and it may be that shadow defence minister Richard Marles would take on both defence and defence industry.
Or current Labor shadow assistant minis- ter for defence industry and support, Mike Kelly, might get the job. Mike Kelly is that rare breed in Labor ranks, a former soldier with actual operational experience.
Yet as a shadow assistant minister, he is in the outer outer cabinet. It’s hard to de- scribe Labor’s complete shadow ministry as anything other than bloated – there are 46 MPs and Senators with various shadow ministerial responsibilities, out of a total 73 MPs and 25 Senators.
Clearly some are going to miss out in the next Labor government. One likely won’t be former Rudd Labor government defence min- ister Joel Fitzgibbon, now shadow minister for agriculture, fisheries and forests. Would he want another shot at defence – maybe not, but he does bring useful experience to cabinet.
46 | April 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
DEFENCE


































































































   44   45   46   47   48