Coalition Moves to Give Parliament Power to Block Sale of Historic Defence Sites

A member of the defence force watches the action during an Australian Wallabies training session at Victoria Barracks in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 20, 2009. Matt King/Getty Images

The federal Coalition has introduced a bill to the Senate that would give Parliament the power to stop the sale of historic defence sites such as Victoria Barracks in Sydney and Melbourne.

Under the bill, a government proposing to sell a military base would have to issue a formal notice, which either the Senate or the House of Representatives could vote to overturn.

The Defence minister would also have to table a statement in Parliament explaining why selling a defence property was in the national interest.

Shadow Defence Minister James Paterson said Australia’s military heritage belonged to everyone.

“It doesn’t just belong to one political party or one government,” he told 2GB Radio. “And if the government wants to sell off a base, they should have to demonstrate they’ve got the support of the Parliament to do so.”

While Labor controls the House of Representatives, Paterson said that if the bill passed the Senate it would “put immense pressure on the government” to allow the lower house to debate it as well.

The bill has been introduced in the Senate and is awaiting its second reading, when its substance will be debated.

The bill follows a Senate committee inquiry into the Labor government’s proposed sale of more than 60 military assets.

In an interim report released on Sept. 16, the committee recommended an immediate halt to the government’s defence estate divestment program and called for greater parliamentary oversight and public consultation over proposed sales.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles announced in February that 64 sites would be sold outright and three partly sold, following an independent audit of the defence estate. The money raised is to be put back into defence.

“For many years this has not been the case, with many defence sites vacant, decaying, underutilised and costing millions of dollars to maintain,” Marles said at the time.

But Paterson said Marles was “selling off the family silver” because the government refused to properly fund defence.

Paterson also rejected Marles’ claim that only a handful of retired senior officers who liked spending time at Victoria Barracks Sydney opposed its sale.

“Well, there were a few former generals who signed my petition, but we don’t have 108,000 former generals in Australia,” he told the radio station.

“Australians from all walks of life, descendants of Anzacs, veterans, people still in service have said this is wrong and it must stop.”

The shadow minister said the barracks still served a practical military purpose, having housed special forces counter-terrorism teams during major international events in Sydney, including APEC.

“And if not there, where else would that be done? The government has not answered that question,” Paterson said.

Opposition to the sales has come from across politics, including from New South Wales Labor Premier Chris Minns, who Paterson said had called on the federal government to reverse its decision to sell Victoria Barracks Sydney.

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