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

There he goes again! There were six wasted years, Senator Conroy—six years in which you did nothing. Not only did you not progress things during those six years, you took them backwards. By 2012-13 you had managed to drop the nation's share of defence spending to its lowest level since 1938. You cut the defence budget by the single largest amount—10.5 per cent—since the end of the Korean War. Following your 2009 white paper you cut or deferred some $16 billion. All up, your decisions led to 119 defence projects being delayed, 43 projects being reduced and eight projects being cancelled.

But, worst of all, Labor actually took more than $20 billion out of the forward projections for the future submarine program. That is what they did.