Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Xenophon, for the supplementary question. I really do need to reiterate what I said in my initial response, and that is that we do have a tender process underway and there is a requirement in place for Defence to evaluate the responses submitted by both the tenderers.

As I said earlier, the potential for Australian industry involvement in the delivery of these new replenishment ships will be considered as part of the evaluation of the proposals that are received. What we have to do in that process as well is weigh that up against potential cost premiums and questions around delivery timetables and potential delays.

So I look forward to Defence coming back to government in 2016 with their proposed way forward—because we need to do this, basically, as soon as possible. We have the Success, which is almost three decades old and is increasingly expensive to sustain. As I said, Defence's best advice to government was that Australian build options could not have achieved the required schedule, but we will certainly consider the potential for Australian industry involvement. (Time expired)