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

I seek leave to make a two-minute statement.

Leave granted.

I wish to make a short statement to the Senate regarding Australian Submarine Corporation and Australian shipbuilding. All Australians have come to know well the frustrations successive governments have faced in fielding a world-class submarine capability. Today we are in the middle of an $8 billion program to build three air warfare destroyers. We have all faced challenges. This cannot be denied. The frustrations of successive governments with the performance of both Collins class sustainment and the Air Warfare Destroyer Program are very well documented. In 2011, Labor defence minister Stephen Smith expressed his own concerns on the sustainment of Collins. He said:

Without having confidence in our capacity to sustain our current fleet of submarines it is very difficult to fully commence, other than through initial planning, the acquisition program for our future submarine.

That was said in July 2011. I am committed to leading the effort to fix those problems. Regrettably, in rhetorical flourish, I did express my frustrations in the past performance of the Australian Submarine Corporation. In these comments, I did not intend to cause offence. May I say on the record here and now that I regret that offence may have been taken. I of course was directing my remarks at a legacy of issues and certainly not at the workers in ASC, who may have, to my regret, taken offence at those remarks. I consider them to be world class.

On the matter at hand, the government has not made any decisions on the future submarine. Decisions will be made, as I have said time and again, on the advice of our service chiefs. Our goal is to deliver to our Navy a new class of submarine that is superior to Collins before the planned withdrawal date. Given the sheer scale of the program, it is only by working together as a team that we will reach this goal. The former government's program was costed at over $40 billion and would have resulted in a capability gap. This is an unacceptable risk to our $1.6 trillion economy. Whatever decision is made on the future submarine, there will be many, many more jobs for South Australia and a more capable Navy for Australians. Thank you, Mr President, and I thank the indulgence of the chamber.