Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for making himself available for the short time we have available to us this evening. I do not intend to make any speeches, again because of the time available, but I do have a range of questions I would like to put to the minister. I understand that he might not be able to answer all of them without notice, but I am happy for him to take them on notice if he feels that is more appropriate. My first question goes straight to some of the financial details of the budget. I would like to ask the minister whether he believes the non-farm GDP deflator plus three per cent—that is, the indexation rate used to measure cost increases in the defence industry—is a sufficient and correct measure for the purposes of that exercise?

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