David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It may be that we have one submarine builder in Adelaide, because we have not built one for 20 years. I want to say that, when I was appointed to this particular ministry, I was told two key facts by the department with respect to submarines. Firstly, that the inaction of the previous government meant that we were facing a very serious capability gap because of the planned withdrawal date of the Collins class submarine. Of course, Senator, you would be aware that this is a vital piece of strategic deterrence to us, given we have most of the value of our $1.6 trillion economy using the sea. Secondly—

Senator Wong interjecting—

I note that I am being interrupted by the person sitting at the table leading the opposition. She knows the truth about the value of this program. The estimated cost of the future submarine program was said to me to be more than $40 billion. Essentially the same figure was handed to me from the previous government. That is the whole program cost for 12 submarines.