Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will tell you what South Australians think. The Leader of the Opposition in South Australia, Mr Marshall, says the minister's position is untenable and he should resign. Mr Briggs, the member for Mayo, says he is wrong. Senator Birmingham says there are no excuses for the behaviour, no excuses for the language. Mr Southcott said Senator Johnston's comments were 'deeply regrettable, unhelpful and wrong'. Even Senator Edwards—who let me tell you sticks with the Liberal Party through thick and thin; I have been on the receiving end of some of his campaigning—says there should be an open tender and he has full confidence in the workers at ASC. And in The Australian the 'unknown' Liberals say that it is bizarre, breathtaking, stupid. That is what they say about this minister—'bizarre, breathtaking, stupid'.

We know that there are some good Liberals around the place. I beat one of them in 2007. His name is David Fawcett. He is the bloke who should be defence minister. He knows more about defence than all of you. It is a great pity that he is not in the chamber today—well, it is not such a pity; I am glad he is in the Senate! He should be defence minister. He has called for an open tender. He knows how damaging this minister is, he knows how important this submarines decision is and he knows how good the Collins class submarine is. But it is not just all of us in this debate. Hugh White, from the ANU, said the minister could not actually articulate the reasons why we are in Iraq. That is what Hugh White says. Jim Molan went on the Bolt Report and praised everybody but the minister. When Andrew Bolt said, You seem to be pointing to the minister, David Johnston.' He said, 'Well I do not really want to go into that. I will say what I need to say privately.' That is what is going on. We know what he said. We know this minister is absent from the national security council. He is cutting pay. And we know he is a loose lipped minister. He is a foolish minister. He is a hot-headed minister.

The Prime Minister has to choose between this foolish idiot as a Defence minister and workers, the national interest, our sub mariners, the ASC, shipbuilding workers and the national institution. He has to choose between an incompetent minister and the national interest. That is the choice here. None of you have done a particularly good job of defending Minister Johnston because you all know loose lips sink ships. Johnson has to go.

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