Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's right. I don't want to take much more of the Senate's time, because it has already been very generous, but I want to make one more comment about this bill in relation to AUKUS. There was a newspaper article in the Australian back on 13 February 2023 titled 'Coalition "putting nation's security at risk": industry minister Ed Husic'. That's what the Australian said. It goes on to say that apparently if this bill isn't passed AUKUS will fall over and it will be a disaster and that there will be major issues in terms of our security if this very important fund doesn't pass. So I thought, 'Well, that's an important statement the minister's made; I'd better just see whether that's right.' We had the hearing on 22 February looking into the bill, which was really well chaired by Senator Walsh. I'll put on the record the very good way that that committee has been run. I said to the department, who turned up:

Thanks very much, Chair. Good afternoon. Has the department provided any briefing or advice to the minister that if the NRF is not passed it would have a direct impact on the AUKUS agreement?

The official, Ms Narelle Luchetti, who is the head of the Manufacturing and National Reconstruction Fund Division, said, 'No, we haven't.' Okay; that's good to know. And then I thought, just to make sure that I'm not going completely bonkers, because sometimes I get a bit confused—