Mr BARTLETT(5.35 p.m.) —I rise tonight to respond to a shameful piece of deceit, deceit framed as a question during the last question time on Thursday of the last sitting week of parliament. The question by the member for Fowler (Mr Ted Grace) pertained to Richmond RAAF Base, a central feature of my electorate of Macquarie. In his question, the member for Fowler referred to the:

. . . government's announced closure and sale of RAAF Richmond, contained in the defence efficiency review . . .

This is totally wrong, but not only is it wrong, it is far worse: it is either a case of appalling ignorance or of blatant dishonesty. Either the member for Fowler had not bothered to read the defence efficiency review, to which he so loosely referred, in which case such a statement was grossly irresponsible, or else he was aware of its contents and deliberately chose to distort it. Either way, it is a pathetic and unabashed case of scaremongering.

Labor is determined to try and score points regardless of the truth, regardless of the facts and regardless of the anxiety they create in the broad community. For the record again and for my constituents in the electorate of Macquarie, the facts are these: the government has not announced the closure of RAAF Richmond and the government has not decided to sell RAAF Richmond. The defence efficiency review merely indicated a number of properties whose usefulness would be evaluated in the medium term. The comments by the member for Fowler were totally and completely misleading.

The RAAF base is central to the economy and the culture of the Hawkesbury. It employs 3,000 people, including 200 defence civilians. In addition, another 100 contractor personnel are employed by other industries on the base. A substantial number of ADF personnel reside in the Hawkesbury-Nepean region—either on the base, in Defence Housing Authority housing or in private housing and others in local privately owned homes. They spend their pay packets in the local community, their children attend school in the local community and many of their spouses work in the local community. In short, they are a part of the community of the Hawkesbury.

In all, the RAAF Richmond base brings about $2 million a week into the local economy. These are the direct benefits. The indirect spin-offs in employment, income and job generation are enormous. Clearly, for these reasons, RAAF Richmond is essential to the Hawkesbury, essential to its economy and central to its community. Its closure would be, in a word, devastating.

This fact is obvious to anyone who lives in the Hawkesbury. What is needed on this issue is a careful analysis of the facts, not the cheap dishonest fear campaign of the member for Fowler and other Labor members obsessed with short-term political point scoring.

I might add that on defence issues Labor's credentials are hardly what one would describe as impressive. Under Labor, defence spending as a percentage of government outlays declined until it had reached an unacceptable level. The former government sold $180 million worth of Defence properties in its last five years and short-listed another $500 million worth of properties for sale. In its own white paper some years earlier it had raised doubts about the future of RAAF Richmond. Labor has no credibility at all on issues of defence or, for that matter, on any other issue. It certainly has no credibility on the issue of RAAF Richmond.

The approach by the member for Fowler on this question is the same approach we have seen time and time again from Labor—cheap scaremongering, deceitful misrepresentation and total disregard for the concerns of the community. These tactics have come to dominate this opposition. When they have a record they are ashamed of, when they have no constructive policies to present and when they have nothing else to offer they resort to fear and deceit. Their response to the future of Richmond RAAF base is typical of such an approach—an approach that we have seen in the last year from Labor to cover for their own shameful lack of policy.

When an opposition has nothing constructive to say, no positive policy alternatives, and nothing to offer the voters of this country it does what Labor is continuing to do: it resorts to deceit, dishonesty and fear. On the issue of RAAF Richmond, as on most issues, the opposition stands condemned by its own record, tactics and dishonesty.