Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes. Mr Shorten's rant painted Japan as a war-time enemy of Australia rather than as an economic partner of such vital significance as it is today. This flippant rhetoric is not just reckless; it is how diplomatic incidents take place and it is how they take flight. This how you fuel the very insecurities in a nation. I do not know what on earth he was thinking that day. Perhaps Senator Gallacher might have been there to pull him off the back of the truck to stop him from making a fool of himself. Where was the outrage from all those South Australians in the federal Labor government back then? Why was it that you oversaw the systematic demise of the defence-spending budget over the six years in your government? Why did you have Defence white paper after Defence white paper? You delayed 119 defence projects, 43 were reduced in scale and eight projects were cancelled altogether. Under Labor, the Australian defence industry lost more than 10 per cent of its workforce. The bottom line about Labor and defence is that they declared submarines a priority in 2007 but had done no work on them by the time they left office. This is why we find ourselves in the position we are in today. You are reckless, you are careless and you are playing around with the nation's sovereignty. (Time expired)