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

I am very pleased the senator has raised the issue of cost, because we paid about $1.2 billion per Collins class submarine—and in 2009 we did not have any in the water! The French Scorpene comes in at about A$1.1 billion. The TKMS 214 comes in at about A$600 million. The French Soryu is produced in Japan for US$550 million. Those are the costs. Our project, under your guidance, has been costed at more than $40 billion for 12 submarines. That is what the Labor Party want to deliver to the Australian taxpayer—one great big mess, as usual—in this space.