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

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the Collins class submarines are a vital capability for Australia,

(ii) historically the Collins class had poor availability, at worst not one was available to go to sea,

(iii) after a significant commitment of resources, and more than half a decade, submarine sustainment has improved, now achieving world benchmarks,

(iv) the current sustainment model works, and

(v) there is a proposal before Government to disrupt the sustainment model and move Full Cycle Dockings from South Australia (SA) to Western Australia which would:

  (A) result in a huge loss of corporate knowledge from Australia's submarine sustainment organisation,

  (B) inject significant challenges and risk into submarine sustainment,

  (C) reduce submarine availability, thereby damaging national security, and

  (D) achieve at best the current performance, and thus cannot represent value for money; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

(i) recognise the success of the current sustainment model, and

(ii) continue the current sustainment model, retaining all Collins class submarine Full Cycle Docking activities in SA.