Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are talking about a project that is an extremely long-term project. We are talking about a project which will go into the next decade. We are talking about a project where Australia will rely on a critical Defence component—that is, submarines. There is no dispute that we need submarines. The only dispute is that lot opposite want to buy them off the shelf and we on this side want to design them and build them using a fully competent trained workforce in South Australia, which will then benefit the wider economy. All of the hundreds of thousands of workers who are in small business, all of the defence companies who make long-term critical decisions based on confidence and certainty need a fully open and transparent tender, which will put this genie back in the bottle and restore some confidence in South Australia, restore some confidence in that great workforce, restore some confidence in the Defence state capabilities and we look forward to that happening.

Unfortunately this minister does need to take a really big cold shower on this, release the Winter report, go to a fully competitive tender—a truly transparent tender—let South Australia do what it does best, let the Defence industry in South Australia contribute and let the state government in South Australia contribute to the process instead of white anting, releasing misinformation and accusing the workforce of being unable and incapable of building a canoe.