Parliamentary Updates

3 June 2026

Ms STEGGALL (Warringah) (14:24): My question is to the Prime Minister. In the 1980s, your Labor mentor Tom Uren fought to stop the Commonwealth from selling off HMAS Penguin at Balmoral. In 2021, you invoked Uren in parliament, saying that Sydney Harbour belongs to the nation and should stay in public hands. So why is your government now planning to sell off parts of HMAS Penguin at Middle Head, against community wishes, and will you commit to setting aside angophora remnant bushland for conservation and keeping historic buildings in public hands?

Mr MARLES (Corio—Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence) (14:24): I thank the member for her question. Order the member for Mitchell. For too long, the question of Defence as a state has been ignored. It was certainly ignored by those opposite when they were in government. As a result, when we look through the Defence Strategic Review about the bases that we need, the focus is on creating much more capable northern bases which can project our Air Force further, but in the same breath it highlights the fact that, as the largest landowner in the country, Defence today is operating many properties which are costing, if not hundreds of thousands then hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain, yet those properties do nothing in terms of Australia's capability.

We hear guffawing from those opposite, and we hear it because in their nine years in government they rotated defence ministers through the portfolio so quickly that they could never get around to the business of actually managing defence, and they left this as an untouched—

The SPEAKER: Order, the Minister for Pacific Island Affairs will cease interjecting. I want to hear from the Manager of Opposition Business.

Mr Tehan: It goes to relevance, Speaker. There was nothing about the opposition in this question. It was about remnant vegetation and your fire sale.

The SPEAKER: The manager will resume his seat. The Deputy Prime Minister won't be able to talk about opposition policies or any previous opposition, because he was asked about the government's plans that they are undertaking, which you're responsible for. Do not stray into those territories anymore. The manager is correct—

Mr Hastie interjecting—

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Canning will leave the chamber under 94(a). I didn't hear what he said, but it's interrupting when I'm dealing with your Manager of Opposition Business, ruling in his favour, and he wants to then heckle him. I don't know why that's happening, but anyway, if everyone can show a bit of respect and courtesy to each other, we'll deal with one thing at a time, instead of this constant bickering and yelling over each other. It's unbecoming, and I won't have it in the House. The Deputy Prime Minister will return to his question.

Mr MARLES: I can understand the opposition's sensitivity, because, for nine long years they squibbed the issue and they're squibbing it now. HMAS Penguin—

The SPEAKER: No, the Manager of Opposition Business can resume his seat. I know what you're going to say. Deputy Prime Minister, I just told you not to do that, and I told you not to mention the opposition. You're defying me. If you do it again, I will sit you down. Return to the question or resume your seat. The Deputy Prime Minister has the call.

Mr MARLES: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Dealing with the estate is business which is long overdue in terms of managing Defence policy. As a government we are tackling difficult issues. We are working with communities around Australia who are proximate to each of these estates, each of these Defence properties, each of these bases, including HMAS Penguin, and we are absolutely committed to working through with the community on what is the future use of HMAS Penguin. We have been doing that from the moment that we did the Defence Estate Audit and had an examination as to whether each of these properties had a role to play in our Defence Force, and, if not, what role they could otherwise play.

As I assume the member may know, the process that we have announced is that these properties will be transferred from the Department of Defence to the Department of Finance relatively quickly over the next couple of years, but from there the process of disposing of the properties will take as long as it does. That means that there will be adequate time in which to engage with communities to deal with questions such as the one that the honourable member has raised. We certainly are very willing to work through those issues with the honourable member along with the Assistant Minister for Defence, the member for Wills, who has carriage of this, to make sure that as we manage the future of HMAS Penguin, be inside Defence or beyond, it is a future which has the best outcome for the community in your electorate.