Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. What was the former coalition's legacy in defence, and what is the Albanese Labor government's plan to fix this?

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

I thank the member for her question. The defence legacy of the 10 years of the former coalition government is one of manifest failure. It started with them, with six—seven, really—defence ministers in the course of nine years. They had Johnston, Andrews, Payne, Payne-Pyne, Pyne, Reynolds—to be honest, I think I got that wrong on Tuesday, but this just gets so confusing—and then Dutton. I could go through the whole 24—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Prime Minister will refer to members by their correct titles.

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

I could go through the whole 24 who served across the defence portfolio, but to do so would run against the time limit for answering questions. Suffice it to say that we saw everyone from Ciobo to Chester, from Andrew Gee to Andrew Hastie.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. Less than 20 seconds ago I asked the minister—

A government member interjecting—

I have no responsibility for former ministers. I ask for current members to be acknowledged by their correct titles.

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

Sorry, Mr Speaker. The seat names spoiled my alliteration! I will continue. It's little wonder that what resulted from all of this was complete chaos. It is hard to think of how the coalition could have treated defence with more contempt. They regarded ministerial jobs in the defence portfolio as like a ride at the show; literally everybody got a go! But the chaos affected real people.

Yesterday, one member of the not-so-exclusive Liberal-former-defence-ministers club, Senator Reynolds, started talking about valleys of death. To be clear: those opposite are experts in valleys of death after program after program ground to a halt. We saw the Hunter class frigates run four years over time; the offshore patrol vessels run a year over time; and the Cape class vessels run another year over time.

The Albanese Labor government is absolutely committed to managing defence procurement properly. We get that defence projects are large and complex, and that sometimes not everything goes right, which is why we're going to have objective criteria—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Herbert is warned.

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

for defence programs to end up on the Projects of Interest list and the Projects of Concern list. And when they do—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fisher is warned.

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

ministers are going to receive monthly reports so that those ministers can put those projects back on track. And we are going to have an independent project office within the Department of Defence. In short, we're going to manage defence procurement properly so that we have value for money for Australian taxpayers. That's because it's not just how much you spend on defence it is the quality of that spend which will build the capabilities for this country and which will keep Australians safe.