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

You are very persuasive, Minister, and indeed I am persuaded not to divide on the voices. However, I make the point that I anticipate that those 2,500 applications will triple. I would like to know at some point, were the officials were to feel comfortable to bring to the roundtable the statistical analysis, what the time frames for those 2,500 applications are and what the average time is. I am sure it is much longer than 15 days.

Generally speaking, I am very conscious of the fact that whilst the department and the Defence Export Control Office do not have physicists, biologists, metallurgists et cetera at its fingertips, and therefore a very large amount of time is going to be required with sensitive and complex applications, I anticipate that the stakeholders at the roundtable will be quite demanding as to what type scheduling regime they are confronting. So, on that basis, I foreshadow that this consideration is a very important one as to the functionality and the way they do their business. Research often in educational institutions and universities is a business, and they will want to know where they stand. They cannot be put into the ether of the Defence Export Control Office for four or five months. That is what this regulation sought to arrest. I am happy with your explanation—persuasively put as it was—and we will not divide on the voices.