Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

If it were all as straightforward and rosy as Senator Wong makes out, you would have to wonder why there was not a defence submarine contract in place when the change of government took place. If it were all as straightforward and rosy as Senator Wong suggests, you would have to wonder why there was not a settled submarine design in place when the change of government took place. If it were all as rosy as Senator Wong and Senator Conroy point out, you would have to wonder why Labor's 2007 promise to build submarines and to start work in 2007 went unactioned for six long years. There were six years of inaction.

I do not like to come into this chamber and give Senator Conroy any credit for anything but—do you know what?—more work went into the design of the national broadband network than went into the design of the next generation of Australian submarines. There was more work on that napkin on the RAAF VIP plane, when the NBN was designed, than there was for Australia's future submarines.

The Labor Party come into this chamber today and tried to suggest, as they have done consistently, that there has been 12 wasted months—as I think I heard Senator Conroy shout out at during question time—