Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I want to put on record the approach that the government will take in relation to the amendment we're presently debating but also the amendments foreshadowed by Senator Shoebridge. We'll be opposing them, and I wanted to set out the reasons briefly. I understand that Senator Fawcett and his office have consulted and briefed Minister Conroy and his office about the bill and the approach more broadly. I want to acknowledge that and acknowledge the constructive way that you have engaged with the government about the bill.

As Senator Brown explained on behalf of the government in the second reading debate, the government supports the intent of this bill. Capability acquisition and sustainment decisions should be appropriately informed by test and evaluation. However, the government is already acting to address the issues that this bill seeks to solve, and the way this bill seeks to pursue these objectives would lead to a suite of negative consequences. In particular, the creation of new agencies runs the risk of duplicating functions, of spreading already finite and limited test and evaluation resources, of increasing existing workforce pressures, of undermining accountable officers' ability to ensure that systems and capabilities meet Defence requirements, of increasing Defence budgetary pressure and of creating a monopoly, as it allows a large company to regulate test and evaluation standards in a niche area where only a small community has the capability to understand all the detail, Given these potential consequences, the government unfortunately cannot support this bill.

The amendments proposed by Senators Fawcett and Shoebridge do not solve these underlying concerns, so the government is not in a position to support those either. However, I reiterate the point I made earlier that the government supports the intent of the bill. Robust capability assurance is essential. The concern is that this bill will interrupt good progress being made by our government towards reshaping the culture within Defence and our long-term plan to build a sovereign test and evaluation enterprise.

The former government had almost a decade to fix test and evaluation, and they never seriously put forward the ideas in the bill. Thanks to our government's interventions, reforms are in place to improve test and evaluation in Defence. Minister Conroy and the government welcome discussion with senator on how to deliver elements of this bill within existing bodies.