George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Madigan, the claims reported by the Bendigo Advertiser were wrong. The contract winner, ADA Pty Limited, competed against four other tenderers for the load carriage requirement. They all offered overseas manufactured solutions. ADA offered an alternative tender for Australian manufacture in Bendigo. This offer was 67 per cent more expensive than the equivalent offshore offer and did not represent value for money. Defence seeks to provide the best capability to our service men and women, while taking into account value-for-money considerations, to provide a proper use of taxpayer funds.

The Australian option provided by ADA did not represent value-for-money for that particular contract. The contract has awarded $60 million of revenue to a Bendigo based company—a Victorian company. That is good news for local manufacturing.