Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I once again express my outrage at the betrayal of Australia's submarine workers and at the absolute chaos that has been created by those opposite who have gone against every explicit promise that was made to the people of South Australia before the last election that there would be 12 submarines built in Adelaide. That is what those opposite took to the last election and that is what we have seen them trying to wriggle out of ever since. This week we have seen the extent of the utter chaos that those opposite have created. The government's handling of this issue of Australia's future submarines has shown that they are as far away from good government as you could ever imagine. The situation is laughable. Some of the press conferences and interviews have been that absurd that if it were not for the seriousness of the repercussions people could sit back and have a giggle at the expense of those opposite.

I remind those opposite, as I call on them to keep to the word they gave to the Australian public, that this is an issue that is absolutely critical to many, many South Australian families. This is an issue which is absolutely critical to Australia's shipbuilding industry, and this is an issue which is about much more than the politics that we have seen over the last few days. This is an issue which is about hundreds of workers—about their employment, about their security and stability and about them feeling like they have been totally forgotten by this government with the game playing that has been going on. The original promise made by those opposite stated:

We will deliver those submarines from right here at ASC in South Australia. The Coalition today is committed to building 12 new submarines here in Adelaide.

That was their election commitment. Of course that has been torn up and tossed aside. We also know that they were not content to stop there. We then had the former defence minister insult every one of the ASC workers when in this parliament he stood up and said that he would not trust them to build him a canoe. What a disgraceful example of the Australian government betraying Australia's hardworking men and women.

But then, in the last week, we have seen the total farce of Senator Edwards and the member for Hindmarsh claiming to have secured a tender for our submarines. They were proud to get out there on radio on Monday. We saw that absurd press conference, which is estimated to have cost over $30,000—getting the South Australian members to fly back home to Adelaide, to all stand up with the Leader of the South Australian Liberal Party standing alongside them, and the Minister for Defence—when it turns out that they actually have not secured a tender at all. Senator Edwards explains this by saying: 'Don't get caught up. I mean, Defence say something; I say another. The defence minister—I mean, it's all the same.' Well, no, it is not the same. We have South Australian members claiming that they received a promise from the Prime Minister that there would be a tender. We now have the Prime Minister and the defence minister backtracking on that. We know there are only two possible explanations: either the South Australian members of the coalition are entirely incompetent or the Prime Minister and the defence minister are entirely unbelievable and dishonest. I suspect it is a bit from column A and a bit from column B.

We also had the PM today in question time claiming that it is not possible in Defence to have an open tender and that somehow we are suggesting that we should be handing over our Defence Force to the Russians and the North Koreans. Prime Minister, you will need to do much better than that, because we only need to look back to the Howard government to see that it is of course entirely possible to have a tender. Under the Howard government, Defence Minister Senator Hill put out a press release entitled: 'Tenders called to build air warfare destroyers'. Ten years ago the Howard government asked for proposals that would involve the construction of air warfare destroyers in Australia. It was possible then. It is possible now. But we need those opposite, and particularly the South Australian Liberals, to grow a backbone, do what they were elected to do and stand up and represent our community and our workforce.