Mr ROBERT (Fadden—Assistant Minister for Defence) (14:25): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. His question is, of course, based on reporting today in The Age looking at figures that Labor leaked to The Age from a Parliamentary Budget Office report. However, it is clear, even at face value, that the comparative analysis in the article is absolutely flawed. The ADF pay offer currently before the tribunal applies to military personnel, yet the figures you are referring to are military personnel and civilians. Mr Burke: Madam Speaker, on a point of order: I ask again for the assistant minister to refer his comments through the chair. The SPEAKER: I call the Assistant Minister for Defence and ask him to so do. Mr ROBERT: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The figures the Leader of the Opposition is referring to include both military personnel and civilians; you cannot compare apples with oranges. Further, by 2017-18, Defence will employee 735 more military and 775 more reserve personnel. Furthermore, this government is reinstating the '1,000-person gap year' that that Labor government took away—that is, over 2½ thousand new people coming back in. The PBS statement that the Leader of the Opposition referred to quite clearly makes the point that, after reaching a peak in 2010-11, the permanent force strength began to slowly decrease. Surprise surprise, under a Labor government the Defence Force started to shrink! Dr Chalmers interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Rankin is warned. Mr ROBERT: The $16 billion ripped out also helps with that shrinking. We have been rebuilding the Defence budget. We have been rebuilding the number of fighting force members. We are adding more than 1½ thousand over the next few years. We are adding an extra 1,000 in terms of the gap year. When you look at those increases in personnel, you start to get an idea of where the personnel budget is going to. And if it were not enough to highlight the politicking of Labor in this area, perhaps someone forgot to tell the Leader of the Opposition that in the coming year there are going to be 27 pay periods. That is an extra quarter of a billion dollars. When we pay people in Defence every fortnight it is a lot of money. An extra pay period is an extra quarter of a billion dollars. That does not seem like a lot of money to the Labor opposition because they are used to pulling $16 billion out. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: instead of politicking, why don't you simply stand up today sir and apologise to the Defence men and women for the $16 billion your government pulled out?