Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs (House)) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very happy to rise this evening to talk about the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022 and related bills. It seems I'm following my colleague the shadow industry minister because government members have stopped debating the budget bill. That says something about the lack of confidence that the government members have in the budget. It sank without trace. Typical of the Treasurer, anything in it that might have been worth something was leaked beforehand. Then, of course, by the time he delivered the budget, everyone knew what was in it and no-one sought to prosecute the argument that it was of any use because, if you look to the budget, you see the government making clear that they are moving very quickly to a $1 trillion of debt as a result of their mismanagement. We should remember that most of the debt accumulated under this government was prior to the pandemic, something that the government is seeking to say otherwise about.

There is a whole series of things about the budget that allow us to properly identify the deficiencies of the government—not just failure to manage debt prior to the pandemic but also a failure to provide sufficient support to defence capability. We have been watching the recent defence minister publicly speak up on the capability of the government with respect to defence capability. However, over the forward estimates there is a cut to the defence capital budget of more than $10 billion. Indeed, because of the failure of the government—remembering that this government has had six defence ministers in eight years—to properly manage the largest defence asset contracts in this nation's history, we are in a situation where we are seeing billions and billions of dollars of taxpayers' dollars being wasted. In the case of the Future Submarine program, we are seeing the expenditure blow out from $50 billion to $89 billion. With respect to the frigates program we've seen an estimated cost blowout of $10 billion. Returning to the Future Submarine program, we've seen the date of the first submarine being in the water delayed by up to a decade. Instead of the first submarine under this program being in the water mid-decade, it's likely to happen mid-2030s. That failure to manage these contracts means that we are left exposed in terms of our national security and defence capability. That is of course letting down the Australian Defence Force and letting down this nation.

It's really up to the government to do better—to right the wrongs and rectify the deficiencies to the extent that they possibly can, given their remarkable dereliction over the past eight years—and to start to focus on the things that matter. With respect to national security, ensuring that the defence contracts are delivered on time and on budget is critical. As I say, these are huge expenditure items. Given the relative instability, the rise of anxieties and concerns in the region and globally, it is urgent that the government get on top of these matters. We've yet to see that play out sufficiently.

It doesn't seem to matter whether or not there are changes to the ministerial line-up. There's no doubt in my mind, and in the minds of others, such as defence experts, that the revolving door of Defence that has been on show has meant there has not been a minister in the position over a sufficiently long period to manage these defence contracts.

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