Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

My question is for the minister representing the Minister for Defence Industry, Senator Payne, and relates to local content in the Future Submarine program. Estimates questions on notice have revealed the following: a total of $1.9 billion in contracts has been awarded for the Future Submarine project; Naval Group have been awarded two substantive contracts, totalling just over $1 billion, for design work to be predominantly carried out in France; and Australian entities have been awarded $834 million in contracts, but Defence has advised that only 67 per cent of that money is being spent on local content. We have $1.9 billion in contracts that have been awarded by the Future Submarine program, but only $569 million has been spent on local content. That's about 30 per cent. What explanation does the government have for dropping this figure from the original 90 per cent, as announced by Minister Pyne, to 60 per cent and now to a mere 30 per cent for local content?