Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

which is why we saw 28 different programs running a combined 97 years over time. When there was a capability problem, the way they did business was through the bizarre mechanism of making announcements with nothing behind them, meaning there wasn't a dollar behind one-quarter of what Defence needed to purchase.

The only pressure those opposite responded to was political pressure, which is why we saw the unedifying spectacle of Australia's future submarine capability being tossed around the former government's party room in the empty chair challenge of Prime Minister Abbott. It's why they were in and out of a subs deal with Japan and in and out of a deal with France. It was only ever about the politics, which is why it is wholly unsurprising that the former government sank to the depths of trying to use the Defence Force to raise money for the Liberal Party. Our government's only interest is the national interest, and we will continue to engage in strategic analysis and to make the hard decisions required to build the Defence Force that we need to keep Australians safe.

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