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

Again, I thank you for that question. It is a very good question and one that you must realise the government agonised over. We want to build military ships in Australia. HMAS Success, our replenishment ship, and HMAS Sirius, our oiler, are coming to the end of their lives. The vessel HMAS Success was commissioned in 1986. Something should have been done about that old ship sooner. We had to bring a Spanish replenishment ship out because HMAS Success needed repairs. That cost us quite a deal of money.

The fact is that we are looking at acquiring a 20,000-tonne or, following a tender contest, a 26,000-tonne vessel. The problem is that, if you know the Adelaide shipyard, the Melbourne shipyard and the Newcastle shipyard, you know we cannot build such a vessel in those shipyards.