Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It is utterly shameful. The reality is that, when it comes to Future Submarines, this Prime Minister did not care about South Australian jobs, and did not care about Australian jobs, until his own job was on the line. What he did was send smoke signals out to a member of his backbench, who then stood up in front of the cameras at Adelaide Airport last night telling everybody that he had had a win—only to be told the next day by various ministers, in their public statements, that nothing had changed. Well, someone is telling lies, someone is telling porkies. Either the Prime Minister did tell Senator Edwards that there would be an open, competitive tender and is now backtracking on it—hoping that no-one will notice the weasel words when he talks about evaluation processes, as opposed to a competitive tender process—or Senator Edwards was lying when he stood up in front of the voters of South Australia last night and said, 'I've had a win.' Someone is telling lies. Senator Edwards should come into this chamber and tell South Australians precisely what was committed by the nation's Prime Minister in relation to the Future Submarines project. He should do that, and the Prime Minister should declare what his position is. (Time expired)