David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition could not support that last motion, although it had a number of matters which we could support. The reasons are as follows. The 2009 white paper was an extremely exhausting process, with 30 public meetings across all states and territories of Australia, engaging more than 600 people personally and by way of submissions. The 2009 white paper has had the shortest shelf life in Australia's history. The 2013 white paper, as brought forward by this minister, is simply window-dressing to show the government is interested when in fact the only real interest in defence and the Defence portfolio this government has is to treat it like an ATM to extract money to appease its financial woes.