Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Carr is correct when he says that this could have been avoided. It could have been avoided if the previous Labor government had done something in its six years. Instead the Labor government in the six sad years when it was in power did absolutely nothing except buy a warship from the United Kingdom. Senator Carr should remember when his government purchased the HMAS Choules from the British government. Why did they not do something then? Senator Carr is walking out the door, not interested in this debate at all. I remind the Senate that in 2012 BAE offered the then government, the Labor government, the opportunity to build supply vessels in a hybrid build—part of it in Australia and part of it overseas. What did the Labor government do with that offer from BAE? They did absolutely what they did all the way through their sad six years in office: absolutely nothing. Had they accepted that offer from BAE at the time there would be people involved in that shipbuilding at present.

The Abbott government has nothing to be ashamed of in relation to shipbuilding. Indeed, conservative governments, Liberal governments since time immemorial have built ships in Australia. I remember the patrol boats that were built in Cairns very many years ago. Senator McLucas, who is based in Cairns, will well remember this. There was a Cairns company that built those ships. They were tendering under the last Labor government for a new lot of ships. In fact they had been given the tip-off that they were going to get the contract. At least then the Labor government would have done something with shipbuilding in Australia. But what happened at the last minute? The Labor government of Queensland and the Labor government federally cut the ground from under them and refused to give them that contract—