Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. Rather than defend the Defence minister the government have decided they would rather shut down debate. We have given them the opportunity today for the Prime Minister to come into this chamber and decide whether or not they have a Defence minister worth defending. One by one, they have all lined up and said, 'No'. They would rather not have the debate. They would rather not have the discussion or be forced into a situation where someone on that side has to claim, 'We have a fit and proper person in the Defence portfolio.' Last night, the Prime Minister of Australia hung his own defence minister out to dry. We had the member for Mayo going out as a member of the executive, completely disowning the comments of the Minister for Defence. We have Senator Birmingham completely disowning the comments of the Minister for Defence. We have the Prime Minister, in a statement, distancing himself from it. This is now a test of leadership for the Prime Minister of Australia. Either he backs his defence minister or he backs his federal Liberal MPs. The Prime Minister, if he has no confidence in the defence minister, should accept the challenge to get rid of his defence minister.

Just think: we have a defence minister showing no confidence at all in Australia's capacity to build our own submarines, with everything that means—and the defence that he put up on radio this morning! I never thought I would hear a defence minister for our nation use this line:

That was a rhetorical flourish that I don't want to be taken literally.

The Minister for Defence on radio said to Australia and to the world, 'Please do not take me seriously.' He has also apologised to the South Australian opposition leader, Stephen Marshall, saying:

I'm happy to apologise if he is offended by this …

When he was told that some of his colleagues want his job, that they could do a better job, he said, 'Of course everybody would say that.'

See this speech in context