Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President! I refer the minister to the press conference on April 16 2015 at which Mr John Birkler, Director of National Security Research Division at RAND Corporation, confirmed that RAND's report on Australian shipbuilding failed to address the building of Australia's future submarines because the government's charter directions were to exclude submarines. Can the minister confirm that the government specifically directed the contractor to ignore Australia's submarine-building capabilities in the analysis?