Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Well, this is hilarious from the Labor Party, isn't it? Leave a complete disaster and then question why we have not fixed it! I can see the Labor Party: they are like coming home and your flatmate has trashed the house and is lying blind drunk on the sofa. You walk in and start to clean up the mess and then the drunkard rolls into his own vomit on the floor, wakes up and gets cross at you for cleaning the house and wants to know why it has not been done! Well, thank you very much, member for Batman! Let us go through each of your claims one by one to unpack the hilarity of the wall. Let us look at the fog that you talk about.

In 2009 Labor made a commitment to 12 submarines with an interim operating capability of 2025-26. If it had actually stuck to the plan there would be no need to extend Collins. But what did Labor do? Nothing. Nothing—in fact, they did nothing for 4½ years. Four years! And because of this Labor was forced to move the initial operating capability by four years to 2029—30. It also took about $20 billion out during the same time. That was their commitment—wrong! That was Labor's commitment to 12 submarines.

Our focus is actually on getting the right capability for Navy, determining how many boats we require at sea to undertake the task set by government and consequently how many boats we need in total. We will deliver an affordable, deliverable white paper. Labor's legacy 2009 white paper: completely unaffordable. One and a half pages of scant financial detail—pie in the sky. The 2013 white paper: no force structure review, no defence capability plan attached to it and no funding attached to it.

We will take national security seriously. The Labor Party speaks from a legacy were Prime Minister Gillard sent her bodyguard to meetings of the National Security Committee of cabinet. The idea that we would be lectured by the Labor Party on national security is simply hilarious. We will ensure that Australia has the military capabilities to deter threats and to project forward in our neighbourhood. We will actually do the hard work that Labor has delayed.

Labor says, 'We were the ones who entertained initial discussions with the Japanese in terms of submarine technology.' Really? I think Minister Johnston was the very first Defence minister actually to go to Japan and start a conversation seriously about what cooperation we could possibly have. Labor made a commitment with little data to back it up and then did nothing and created an operational gap. We will fix it up, as we do with everything Labor does in Defence. We will clean up the mess that the drunkards have made while they still look hung-over on the couch. When it comes to shipbuilding and the 'valley of death', I say this is hilarious. What did Labor do in government? Your last election commitment for Defence—

Mr Feeney interjecting—

No, I will not take the question, member for Batman, so resume your seat. What did Labor do at the election? What did Labor do? They promised to move Fleet Base East to Brisbane. That was your policy.

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