We thank all 2022 Hunter Defence Conference ticket holders for supporting the event and also our conference sponsors and supporters, without which we would not be able to assemble such an impressive list of speakers and corporate hospitality. Your support of this year’s conference will again allow us to make donations to Veteran based charities.

The Hunter Defence Conference has quickly become one of Australia’s premier defence events in terms of program quality and value for money, further evidenced in 2022 with the addition of an exhibition component which will feature over 20 leading organisations across the Defence Industry in the Hunter. We are also honoured to have The Hon Pat Conroy, Minister for Defence Industry, join us as the keynote speaker for the Gala Dinner. Minister Conroy’s attendance is further testament to the interest and opportunities that exist for the Hunter region.

The Hunter is in the unique position of having existing industry strengths across key Defence capability areas. Our air combat capability is clear and there is already significant skills and investment happening in this area. We have defence primes located here, which means the region can expand into land, cyber and space as well as contribute significantly to the growing east coast naval presence. Our port and harbour facilities, with the associated maritime businesses, also means there is the infrastructure and expertise locally to support a large naval presence - having sea-based capability within 20 kilometres of an air combat base certainly gives the Hunter a competitive advantage in this space.