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

Since the 2009 defence white paper was delivered by Labor, most notably in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 budgets, defence has had to delay 70 projects, reduce the provisions of 35 and cancel a further seven. Cancelling, delaying or suspending projects means only one thing—jobs in the Australian defence industry have been lost. There have been lost, as a result of Labor's incompetence, 5,000 highly skilled jobs in the defence industry since 2009. Guess where they have been: in South Australia and Victoria. The Australian government is committed to supporting the local defence industry, and there will be, as I have said in an answer to a previous question, no further cuts to defence spending by this government. Defence expects to spend $5.4 billion, or around 59 per cent, of the DMO's total military equipment acquisition. (Time expired)