Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

So we are certainly talking to the Japanese about a whole range of defence cooperation—a whole range of defence procurement. But we are not talking just to the Japanese. We are talking to the French. We are talking to the Germans. And we are talking to the Australian Submarine Corporation. That is what sensible governments do.

Members opposite sat on their hands for six years. They sat on their hands for six years. They were just paralysed. So what is happening here is that, yet again, this government is fixing up another bit of Labor chaos. That is what we are doing. More Labor chaos is being fixed up by us.

I will just make the fundamental principles clear. We want the best possible subs for the best possible price. We want the world's best conventional submarines. Who builds them and where they are built will depend upon a competitive evaluation process. That is as it should be. That is what an adult government does. What we have, I am afraid, in this parliament today, is an utterly unprincipled and utterly unscrupulous opposition. They were incompetent in government and now they are determined to be wreckers in opposition. Frankly, this kind of behaviour is just shameful.

Honourable members interjecting—

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