Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Kitching, I move:

That—

(a) the Senate notes that:

  (i) for years the Government publicly referred to the Future Frigates as a $35 billion acquisition, until the release on 1 July 2020 of the 2020 Force Structure Plan which contained a revised costing of $45.6 billion,

  (ii) the Department of Finance has revealed that since 2018 the Government knew that the out-turned acquisition cost of the Future Frigates had increased to $44.3 billion, and

  (iii) the Department of Defence has revealed that commercial considerations subsided in December 2018, and thus nothing precluded the public release of updated acquisitions costs;

(b) the Senate further notes that, despite the facts outlined in paragraph (a), the Government continued to incorrectly refer to the Future Frigates as a $35 billion acquisition, and this included:

  (i) the then Minister for Defence and then Minister for Finance in a joint media release on 14 December 2018,

  (ii) the then Minister for Defence and now Minister for Defence in a joint Budget media release on 2 April 2019, and

  (iii) the Minister for Defence and Minister for Defence Industry in a joint media release on 31 March 2020;

(c) there be laid on the table by the Minister for Defence and Minister for Finance, by no later than 9.30 am on Thursday, 4 March 2021, documents and correspondence relating to the preparation and finalisation of materials for use by the Departments of Defence and Finance and the Ministers for Defence and Finance between 1 December 2018 and 1 July 2020 that included reference to the Future Frigates as a $35 billion program;

(d) documents to be produced under paragraph (c) include, but are not limited to:

  (i) documents and correspondence relating to the preparation and finalisation of the media releases referred to in paragraph (b),

  (ii) documents that may relate to the production of other media releases, speeches and other documents prepared to support public statements and media engagements by the Ministers for Defence and Finance and officials of the Departments of Defence and Finance, and

  (iii) drafts of documents and any comments from Ministers or their staff on drafts of those documents; and

(e) if the Senate is not sitting when the documents are ready for presentation, the documents are to be presented to the President under standing order 166.

Question agreed to.