Senator Gold: The government is not ignoring this. The government’s expenditures on defence have been increasing and continue to increase well above the levels of the previous government — the rhetoric notwithstanding.

I shall remind colleagues of the increases in total defence dollars spent by the current government since 2015: $23.9 billion in 2015, $23.47 billion in 2016, $30.76 billion in 2017, $29 billion in 2018, $29.95 billion in 2019, $31.64 billion in 2020 and $33.67 billion in 2021.

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