James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

This motion displays a complete lack of understanding about defence preparedness arrangements. Under the ADF's regular planning cycle, HMAS Choules assumed duties as the on-line-already ship to support any humanitarian and disaster relief requirements in mid-March. She arrived in Brisbane this morning to pick up stores before heading towards affected areas.

During recent first-of-class flight trials, a propulsion issue was identified aboard HMAS Canberra, and she is currently being inspected. As a prudent measure, the same inspections were conducted on HMAS Adelaide and identified emergent issues. As advised by Navy, both ships are still in the operational test and evaluation period, which is the expected period in which such issues are identified prior to final operational capability being declared. These inspections have had no impact on Defence meeting its operational tasks.

Question agreed to.