Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy, there is something wrong. We heard questions earlier today on other matters; they are worried about the Chinese too. They are worried about the Chinese and the Japanese. Over here, we look to our north and we see opportunity: we see the ability to trade; we see the ability to have our defence needs met. Over there, all they see is risks and threats. They are the negative party about Asia and they are not willing to connect with it.

What is wrong with the Japanese sub? We have had four hearings, I believe, on the submarine side of this report. We have heard from a few people. Yes, some of them are experts in their field. But we have not heard the evidence to make judgements like that, and that is why we need to remain open-minded about other options.

The other thing their report did not do was quote Mr Warren King. They spent their whole executive summary, which is the reasoning behind their recommendations, and they did not quote from Mr Warren King once. Mr Warren King is the CEO of the Defence Materiel Organisation. He is responsible for the running of this project. I think all senators would agree that he gave authoritative and expert evidence to the committee. But they provided no evidence. In our report we did quote from him. Mr King was asked about what he found or what the situation was when the government changed. He said: 'I was worried about our lack of progress on Future Submarines over many years. I was worried about how we were going to break the deadlock of the—'