Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 432 standing in my name for today concerning an order for the production of documents relating to ASC Pty Ltd before asking that it be taken as a formal motion.

Leave granted.

I move the amended motion standing in my name:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) ASC Pty Ltd is a Government Business Enterprise, ultimately owned by the taxpayer,

  (ii) early in its deliberations on the future submarine project, the Department of Defence made a decision to not involve ASC in any substantive work on the future submarine – a fact only revealed to the Senate on 20 June 2017 at an Economics References Committee hearing,

  (iii) on 11 October 2016 – in response to a strategic review of ASC, that was conducted in 2015 – the Government announced that it was splitting ASC group into three entities:

(A) Shipbuilding

(B) Submarine Sustainment, and

(C) Infrastructure, and

  (iv) Defence has made a decision to exclude ASC from any management role in the Future Frigate program – a plan also withheld from the Senate; and

(b) orders that there be laid on the table, by the Minister representing the Minister for Defence Industry, by the start of business on 6 September 2017:

  (i) the report of the strategic review of ASC Pty Ltd that was conducted in 2015, and

  (ii) all unclassified portions of the Future Frigate tender documentation set.

Question agreed to.