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

My question is to Minister Payne, representing the Minister for Defence Industry. I refer to documents released to me under FOI on Monday, two days after the South Australian state election, that revealed that your department contracted ASC in June 2016 to undertake a study for the relocation of Collins submarine full-cycle docking, work that involves 700 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs from South Australia to Western Australia. Is it not the case that ASC's Adelaide based full-cycle docking work has been applauded by Minister Pyne as 'remarkable and exemplary'? Is it not the case that, following inquiries to your office by The Advertiser in August 2016, ASC was directed to suspend the study because of what the department described as 'current sensitivity'? What was that sensitivity, and was it political?