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

I apologise, Senator Conroy, but that sounded a little bit like a non sequitur to me. I am not sure that your observations in relation to Williamstown and Newcastle follow from your question in relation to the naval vessels. But let me be very clear: based on the unambiguous advice of the Department of Defence in June 2014, the coalition government did give first-pass approval for a limited tender between Navantia of Spain and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering of South Korea. That included a staged capability development process, a risk reduction design study to enable the development of the ship's specifications and so on. The problem was that, because no orders had been placed by the previous government for a naval vessel during their entire term, this gap to be filled urgently. (Time expired)