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

Senator David Johnston is one of the best defence ministers Australia has had for many, many years. He is streets ahead of any of the three Labor ministers who occupied the portfolio during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. He is, in my opinion, significantly better than some of the coalition defence ministers of recent memory. He is one of the best defence ministers this country has had in recent years. What the Labor Party is doing, in a cynical political exercise that has no merit in it whatsoever, is trying to hang him for a stray remark.

I ask—through you, Mr President—of the crossbenchers: apply the same test to yourselves. Everyone in this chamber should apply the same test to themselves. Should your political career be in peril by one moment of exuberance in question time? If we were to apply that test and we were to be honest with ourselves, each and every man and woman in this chamber has said things in a moment of exuberance that they would regret. But, unlike Senator Stephen Conroy, who not in a moment of exuberance but in a moment of calculated and despicable calumny, defamed a fine Australian General, General Angus Campbell. Senator David Johnson had the spine and the manliness and the character to come to the chamber this morning and say, 'I made a mistake yesterday. I apologise and I withdraw and I express my regret.'

I rise to oppose this motion, but, in a sense, I am arguing against my own interests, because nothing would be more serviceable to the coalition than to have a debate on the catastrophe that was the Labor Party's defence policy. This is the party that, in six years in government, reduced Australia's defence spending from not quite two per cent of GDP to 1.56 per cent of GDP, the lowest level since 1938. This is the party that went through three defence ministers in six years, and all of them—all three of them—were no-hopers! This is the party that was so interested in defence that at the 2013 federal election, it did not even produce a defence policy because no-one over there was interested enough to do it! This is the party that talks about the importance of the next generation of Australian submarines—and important they are—but do you know what? When they were in office, because their deeds always speak louder than words, they ripped $20 billion out of the Future Submarine program—that is right, Mr President—and progressed it not at all.

Mr Rudd, when he was Leader of the Opposition, said:

A Rudd … Government would make it a priority to ensure that the necessary preliminary work on Australia's next generation of submarines was carried out in time for consideration and initial approval in 2011 …

Well, there was no initial approval in 2011 or in 2012 or in 2013. All there was was a degradation of the budget so that there was no capacity to build a future Australian submarine in time to replace the retiring Collins class submarines. That government, the government in which Senator Wong was the finance minister and in which Senator Conroy served as a senior minister, was so inert, so uninterested, so negligent about Australia's naval needs, and particularly its need for a next-generation submarine, that it left us with a four-year capability gap. There will be, at least, a four-year gap in Australia's defence capability—entirely as a result of your mismanagement, your negligence, your indifference and your incompetence!