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

I thank the senator for his question and his longstanding interest in defence matters. The task to restore the defence budget is, as we all know on this side of the chamber, monumental. Those on the other side have been talking about deceit. Well, the architects of deceit—the people who wrote the book on it—are sitting over there when it comes to the defence budget. They had absolutely no qualms in ripping $16 billion out of the last four years of the defence budget. They told everybody they had a plan. They gave us a white paper in 2009. They had no plan and they had an unfunded white paper. In terms of finance the defence portfolio was an unsustainable mess. The first thing I was told in coming to the portfolio by the department was that the Defence Capability Plan is in financial disarray and the 2009 white paper aspirations are unaffordable. There is deceit for you. There is a monumental lie perpetrated on the Australian people. Labor left this important—

Senator Conroy interjecting—

Senator Cameron interjecting—