Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence. Before the election, the now minister told ABC Newcastle on 9 August 2013:

I get really fired up when I find us giving away our manufacturing base in the Defence space to foreign manufacturers.

Yet what did we hear today? Building ships in Australia is beyond the Australian industry's capacity—we are just not up to it, he implied. Mr President, why has the minister broken his promise to Australia's Defence manufacturing industry and excluded Australian companies from tendering for the two new naval supply ships, which will send thousands of Australian jobs to either Spain or South Korea?