Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence. Before the election, the now minister told ABC Newcastle on 9 August 2013:

I get really fired up when I find us giving away our manufacturing base in the Defence space to foreign manufacturers.

Yet what did we hear today? Building ships in Australia is beyond the Australian industry's capacity—we are just not up to it, he implied. Mr President, why has the minister broken his promise to Australia's Defence manufacturing industry and excluded Australian companies from tendering for the two new naval supply ships, which will send thousands of Australian jobs to either Spain or South Korea?

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The simple answer to the senator—if he had any real understanding of this portfolio—is that we urgently require two replenishment ships, because for six years they did nothing. When we came to power—and the reason for the air warfare destroyer problem is actually sitting at the opposition leader's table—we promised we would build three air warfare destroyers. After two rebaselinings and a productivity level that is off the planet—we set it at 80 man hours per tonne—what do you think ASC are delivering on? One hundred and fifty man hours per tonne. This is not a blank cheque from the taxpayer. If the senator understood that a 20,000-tonne or 26,000-tonne vessel cannot be built in the Hunter or down at Williamstown—because the only place we can build a 6,000-tonne air warfare destroyer is in Adelaide—he would realise that we have two ships yet to be constructed; there is nowhere to build them; and there is no productivity at the moment justifying such an outlay. You want—

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You have got 30 seconds to go.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Conroy!

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You want us to do something you refused to do. What happened to the replacement for Aurora Australis? It went offshore because you refused to back an Australian build. You know it. It is all very well for the Leader of the Opposition to stand up there in Williamstown and bleat and complain about the valley of death—hypocrisy, thy home is over there.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You promised to protect Australian jobs.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Conroy, interjections are disorderly. If you wish to debate the issue, you can debate it at the end of question time.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Before the election, on 8 May 2013, the now minister stood outside the shipbuilder ASC in Adelaide and, in relation to Australia's future submarines, this is what he had to say:

We will deliver those submarines from right here at ASC in South Australia.

He said:

The Coalition today is committed to building 12 new submarines here in Adelaide …

Minister, will you now repeat that commitment that you gave on 8 May 2013?

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What did I find on SEA 1000, the submarine project, upon being appointed defence minister? I found that virtually nothing had been done on that project, but, worse, the future funding in the DCP out to 2030 had been raided and ripped off by Labor so that the funding for that particular program had been ripped off.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So was it a lie then or is it a lie now? Which is it?

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Carr, that is disorderly. You need to withdraw.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw. Were you lying then or not?

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What else did I find about Labor's future well-touted, big-splash programs?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The question was very simple: will you repeat your promise to build 12 submarines in Adelaide today, right now? That was the question.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I draw the minister's attention to the question. The minister has 29 seconds remaining.

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What else did I find? I found the Air Warfare Destroyer Program $300 million down the gurgler. What I promise about submarines is: there will be no capability gap, in spite of the abject mismanagement of the Labor Party.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Why is the Abbott government abandoning these shipbuilding jobs just as it abandoned workers at Toyota, Ford, Holden and Qantas? Doesn't the minister's failure to stand up for these jobs confirm yet again that this is just another step in this government's plan to kill Australia's manufacturing industry and tell more lies to the Australian public?

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We certainly have not abandoned Australian shipbuilders. We have actually given them a credible path forward. If they can manufacture and recover the Air Warfare Destroyer Program, there is a promise, an option on the table for a further eight ships fully funded, fully designed, fully planned. That, in one fell swoop, is a thousand times more than what the incompetence of the last Labor government promised. We have had to confront a program that, as I have said, is $300 million and about two years late in terms of cost and schedule. If the senator wants me to make the sorts of promises that were the hallmark of his government, I will say: all will be rosy. We will not put up with low productivity in shipbuilding, but we want an industry and we will have one. (Time expired)