Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

at $50 million, as I am reminded by my colleague. Or is Defence going to be made to absorb the $50 million that it is going to take to convert these functional aircraft needed for the defence of Australia into comfort zones for the Prime Minister, presumably so he can take the butler and probably even the childcare person and the stylist? They will all be very comfortable. We will be pleased to know about that.

I also want to know precisely why it is that, when estimates were on and these questions were being asked about the VIP fleet—two weeks ago this is—the CDF, who is a man who always tells the truth in a very straightforward way, said that there was nothing planned by way of doing something about the VIP fleet. Then suddenly we have Mr Rudd saying no, he needs to have two new aircraft at his disposal. Considering that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority estimates that the total operating cost of the Airbus A330, the aircraft that are going to be commandeered, is $6,372.73 per hour—as against the BBJ737 at $3,309.69—how is this additional cost to be met? Is it again to be the Department of Defence absorbing the cost? While we are on the question, you do love to talk about reducing carbon emissions; what is the carbon footprint that is going to be generated by the comfort zone for the Prime Minister?

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