Good morning Your Excellency, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

If you have not been acknowledged, please consider yourself acknowledged. I’ll try and keep this a little shorter.

I’d also like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Ngunnawal people. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who have served and those who continue to serve in the Australian Defence Force. We are a stronger force and a better nation for it.

I would also like to acknowledge the thousands of sailors, soldiers and aviators deployed around the world doing our mission, and to their families who are left behind who we support in their absence.

I would also like to acknowledge some special friends who’ve travelled from interstate to be here to support Jodi and I today.

My childhood friend Mark Dearden and his wife Terrianne.

Mikael and Jackie Borglund – go the Rabbitohs.

Rear Admiral Raydon Gates and his wife Alison Gates. Raydon was the XO of my first ship when I was a junior sailor, and it was in the South China Sea where my orders to the Australian Defence Force Academy came through. He was the first officer to invite me in for a mentoring session – I was still just a Seaman. Raydon, that was a mark of your character and your respect for our sailors, thank you for being here today.

Chief Petty Officer Geoff Connelly, my Recruit School Instructor from 1986. Geoff, thank you for your service and thank you for being here today.

Martin Holzberger, my shipmate from several submarine postings, but most notably our Chief of the Boat in Sheean when I was XO, and his wife Kathy. I will remember that year in particular, 225 days away, 187 underwater between February and November.

Mark Donaldson VC, his wife Emma, thank you for being here. Dan Keighran VC. Two extraordinary soldiers who know a thing or two about service and sacrifice, and they have become good friends. To Mark, go the Blues. Dan, I know you love the Maroons, go the Blues.

This is an eclectic group by any measure. You’re connected by your friendship to Jodi and me, and a common thread of humility and quiet achievement.

Thank you all for keeping me grounded.

And finally, a shout out to my mum Joyce watching online from Adelaide. Mum, I’m sorry the Crows lost the showdown to Port Adelaide – no I’m not really.

To Admiral and Mrs Johnston, to David and Belinda – to Ellie and Jake and Aidan – thank you. On behalf of our sailors, soldiers and aviators, I thank you and your family for your decades of service and personal sacrifice for our nation.

David, you’ve been at the most senior leadership table in Canberra for 12 years. There are no current operations in play that do not have your fingerprints on them in one way or another.

But you have also left an indelible impression on the next generation of leaders too. As a mentor of mine over the last 15 years, I will miss you.

While you have been farewelled by many parts of our enterprise already, and Navy will formally farewell you soon, I would like to take this moment to thank you for your stewardship of the ADF over the past two years. Our Defence Force, and our nation, are better for it.

To my family, Jodi, Jess and Josh, again, thank you for all of your unwavering love and support to date. Every time my crew and I completed the aims of a mission and set course for home I have looked to the stars for the Southern Cross, knowing you would see the same sky and while heading south again we were closer with every passing mile.

As you know, there is more to come, and as I said at the Chief of Navy Change of Command – buckle up team and thank you in advance. We have one more mission to complete.

To everyone else, thank you for joining us on this cold Canberra morning. You are all very busy and we have much to do, so I’d like to start with a sense of purpose.

In 1859, Captain Alfred Henry Alston RN framed the Royal Navy purpose as follows. He said:

“Remember, your vocation, deliberately chosen, is war. It is war for the sake of peace but war nonetheless, so prepare diligently for the moment the safekeeping of the realm comes into your hands.”

This quote has been on display at our Naval College for over 100 years.

For our island nation, it has served to remind generations of naval leaders that our volunteer force has a unique, existential purpose. The safekeeping of our island nation, assured by diligent preparation and readiness for war at sea.

I believe this quote applies to all who wear our uniforms across the three services, and it has helped shape my approach to leadership for many years.

It takes more than a clear sense of purpose to build a resilient and integrated force. It takes character.

As we heard yesterday from my friend and Australia’s 41st Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, our service should come with expectations of challenge and hardship.

I also commend the quote from retired Brigadier Mansford, which speaks to character and to mindset. He said:

“The oath to serve your country did not include a contract for normal luxury, and comforts enjoyed within our community. On the contrary, it implied hardships, loyalty and devotion to duty, regardless of your rank.”

Brigadier Mansford sought to instil these expectations at the Jungle Warfare Training School. He was speaking to our Army, but he could just as easily have been describing life at sea, in a cockpit or at a remote airfield.

However, it takes more than a clear sense of purpose and an expectation to face hardships and overcome them. It takes a determination to embrace adverse challenges and to succeed through overcoming them.

Here, our Air Force’s motto succinctly captures this beautifully: “Per Ardua ad Astra – Through Adversity to the Stars.”

Our aviators know that success in the air begins on the ground. It begins with teamwork focused on our ambitious common mission – to safely defy gravity again, and again, and again, to employ lethal effects that contribute to safeguarding our realm – our nation and our nation’s security and prosperity.

These three quotes remind me of the reason Australia’s Department of Defence exists, and the character and mindset we must all embrace if we are to succeed as a team transforming our Defence Force into an integrated and focused force while the world changes around us at an increasing speed.

Because our world has changed, and it continues to change at a speed and at a scale that we haven’t faced in decades.

I have watched the region change since my first deployment to the South China Sea as a 19 year old. I have witnessed the transformation in naval capabilities from the bridges of warships – both at sea and alongside in the region’s civil and naval ports while working with our allies and partners – and I’ve seen the change through many periscopes during what feels like countless deployments and months on end spent at sea.

I have lost count of the birthdays, anniversaries and missed family and friend events whilst on patrol. But we do need eyes and ears where it matters to truly understand the changes likely to impact our nation.

During this time the technology has evolved, with more lethal and longer range missiles coming to the fore. The types and numbers of warships, submarines and aircraft have multiplied, and the behaviour of some nations has changed markedly.

The 2026 National Defence Strategy responds to these changes and assigns us three clear roles and a direction to transform into an integrated, focused force.

We have been directed through successive National Defence Strategies to shape, to deter and to respond.

To shape our environment where we can. Now this is predominantly a diplomacy and statecraft mission, and we work hard in support of Australia’s diplomatic corps to support the mission across the globe. But there are other military shaping tasks too, and this important work continues quietly.

We are tasked to deter actions inimical to Australia’s national interests. This is why we are present where it matters throughout the region, because presence deters poor behaviour.

It is why we are investing in strong partnerships and rapidly introducing capabilities to deliver lethal and impactful power projection that make potential adversaries respect our sovereign ability to respond to military provocation.

And finally, we are directed to defend Australia as a lethal, focused, integrated force. This last mission is the real reason our department and the Australian Defence Force was established.

It is our core mission: To defend Australia and our national interests.

Being ready to defend Australia is foundational to being able to achieve our shaping and deterrence objectives.

In short, our mission is simple: Diplomacy and deterrence first. Ready to defend Australia always, alongside our allies and partners.

Ready to shape, ready to deter, ready to defend.

Our business is the art of warfare, and resilient, determined, ambitious command, leadership and teamwork behaviours are the foundations of our success.

On the broader Defence Enterprise, I offer the following thoughts.

Our job involves maximising the readiness, effectiveness and availability of our war fighting forces as directed by Government. That force should be as large, and as lethal, as we can make it.

This should be achieved while minimising the cost of ownership of the governance system that enables and oversees ADF operations and activities.

As Admiral Johnston has often reminded us, you can only spend a dollar once so we must be mindful of the choices we make.

The same can be said of time and people. We must ensure we optimise the use of every cent, every second and every person. We must be lean where we can, robust where it matters most, while leveraging the force multiplying impact of the Australian Public Service and our contractor partners – in the most cost effective way possible.

And we must embrace the pace and scale of change we are experiencing with what Lieutenant General Stuart has called a continual adaptation mindset.

After all, as Vice Chief of the Defence Force Air Marshal Robert Chipman reminded me last night when he quoted the Italian air power theorist Giulio Douhet:

“Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur.”

On community, finally, we must remember who we are and who we serve.

We are Australia’s sailors, soldiers and aviators.

Wherever you serve across the five warfighting domains, you are always at your foundation either a sailor, a soldier or an aviator. Committed to your country, your family and your mates. Working hard to build on our 125 years of history, heritage and service.

We do so knowing, and showing, that we stand ready to do the nation’s toughest work under the most challenging conditions imaginable, wherever and whenever directed by Government.

But we are also Australian sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, just like those who support, and even those who criticise, our work.

We are of the Australian community, we are for the Australian community, regardless of religious or political persuasion.

We also choose every day to commit ourselves, and our families, to this extraordinary national endeavour. We must pursue this vital work while remaining connected to, representative of, and humbly in service of our fellow citizens.

To our ADF senior leadership team – to Rob, Matt, Susan, Chaps, Blitz, JJ, Leon, Natasha, Michelle and Jonathan – it’s an honour to serve with you and for Australia during these challenging times.

And I might note, that those of us serving in the Australian Defence Force Headquarters at the moment all commenced our journey at the Australian Defence Force Academy over the back of this hill between 1987 and about 1994. We are integrated in mindset by design, and have been for decades.

You all have my respect, my appreciation, my trust, and my commitment to work with and for you as we strive to discharge our collective responsibilities as a team.

In closing, I’d like to thank our Secretary of Defence, Meghan Quinn, and our extraordinary team of Australian Public Service personnel who enable our warfighting potential, who provide the policy guidance, provision of capabilities and governance functions that underpin our success. I look forward to leading and stewarding the department with you Meghan over the next four years.

I thank our industry partners who provide the ADF with incredible capabilities, and sustain their lethal potential.

And finally, I thank the sailors, soldiers and aviators of the Australian Defence Force whom we serve, and their families who love and support them, and who ultimately enable our service and our success. They are the best of us, and I commit to doing our very best for them, working with and for my senior leadership team.

I will finish my remarks with a few words from Rudyard Kipling from World War One, with apologies for altering the sequence. These words summarise the approach to service of our submarine force and the way we might all approach our service, whether in the Navy, Army or Air Force – professionally, without want of recognition, always quietly in service of others in these challenging but exciting times.

“They follow certain secret aims
Down under, far from strife or din.
When they are ready to begin
No flag is flown, no fuss is made
More than the shearing of a pin.
That is the custom of ‘The Trade’.
Their feats, their fortunes and their fames
Are hidden from their next of kin;
Unheard they work, unseen they win
That is the custom of ‘The Trade’.”

Thank you all for your attention this morning.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you in advance for your resilience, your determination, support and teamwork, as we work to set the conditions for our sailors, soldiers and aviators to prevail in this challenging but exciting world.

And to David, as we say in the service – at Papa Delta [periscope depth], happy, I have the Con.