Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The realities are, as everyone in this chamber knows, that for six years the former government sat on its hands in relation to this vital part of this nation's manufacturing sector. The realities are that the person who was responsible primarily for this is the person who is asking this question.

I will go through it again because clearly Senator Carr either was not listening or does not care; I suspect that probably, on the back of his time as industry minister, it is the latter. As I referred to the other day, over the next two decades—and I will read it very slowly so that you can hear it—Australia will invest over $89 billion to acquire and sustain new submarines, frigates, offshore patrol vessels and other specialist naval vessels. A significant amount of the work to build these new ships will be undertaken in Australia. The Australian naval shipbuilding industry will play a critical role in the regeneration of the Navy's fleet. This investment— (Time expired)