Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, after a terrible start to the week, the Prime Minister attempted to shift focus away from his failed leadership by releasing the defence white paper. I understand the white paper was ready for release when former Prime Minister Abbott was deposed nearly six months ago. The white paper refers to $195 billion of defence spending over the years ahead. It includes 12 new submarines, 12 new offshore patrol vessels, three new air warfare destroyers and nine frigates. The paper, however, does not provide any certainty about when those vessels will be built, where they will be built or who will build them. For the people of South Australia, who were promised 12 new submarines prior to the 2013 election and then, only last year, offshore patrol vessels to be built by 2018, the uncertainty continues. With an election to be held some time this year, the white paper appears to be a political document that will be used by the Turnbull government to announce more election promises. We have already seen a taste of that in an answer to a question only last Thursday. South Australians, who have had enough of this government's backflips, want certainty not election promises, which this government, simply, cannot be trusted to deliver on.