Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

As much as it's going to kill me with Mr Moriarty—

It is killing me because, quite frankly, that's not how I feel.

This bill does something. It's a bill that introduces both technical oversight, like the very well respected US Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, and a bit of—a bit of—political oversight of Defence, not nearly enough. You just don't learn, you people in here. In relation to the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, or the DOTE, as they are known, the reports they do are honest and publish the real state of US projects, not the snow job which—I'm putting it politely—we get at estimates. When I want to know what's going on with US equipment used by the ADF, I go to the DOTE reports. How embarrassing! I've got to go to their reports instead of our own. But it's better than nothing, I guess.

This bill, as much as it does not go nearly far enough, is about as good as it's going to get at this present time. I thank the committee for doing this inquiry, but what is really needed here is a major rethink; it is a major rethink. I cannot believe how many people that are in these major parties here at times are comfortable with a billion dollars being wasted, because, quite frankly, it is absolutely shameful. But what's even more shameful is that you are putting at risk our service men and women if they have to go to war, let alone the national security of this country.

What is needed is a hell of a lot more transparency. Defence is another organisation that is overly secretive for no reason but to cover its own behind, and it's secrecy that serves to hide all manner of all the projects since. All too often we see a project that is working perfectly one week being cancelled the next on account of long-term failures. I'll be supporting Senator Fawcett's bill and I congratulate him for doing it.