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

The proposition that Senator Carr has put to the chamber is not only fallacious, it's factious. This government is getting on with the business of delivering capability for the Royal Australian Navy with offshore patrol vessels, future frigates and future submarines, not to mention Pacific patrol boats for a number of our key regional neighbours—54 vessels in total. That process is extremely complex. It is overseen by a Naval Shipbuilding Plan with which the senator should be well familiar. And it is underpinned by a vast amount of work being done within the organisation, within the department, which the senator has asked about in estimates but chooses to conveniently forget some of those discussions on a day like today. But most importantly: ships commissioned by those opposite, the Labor Party, when in government—zero.