Senator CALVERT —At question time today, Senator Newman was criticised by the opposition about the government's non-activity in defence matters and the fact that not enough money was being spent on defence. I think these two reports put the lie to that. These reports put forward two proposals amounting to almost $100 million. One of them is the RAAF Base Townsville. Part of the activity there and money being spent there is on the development of the Air Force base which, as everybody who is interested in the matter would know, particularly Senator Ian Macdonald, is an airhead for the 3rd Brigade's ready deployment force, which of course is in East Timor at the moment. It just shows that the government is supporting the 3rd Brigade. The other relates to the Darwin naval base redevelopment, as Senator Patterson would know, and approves facilities to enable more patrol boats to be stationed in Darwin to carry out patrol work to avert the further incursion of illegal immigrants and others into Australia.

Question resolved in the affirmative.