Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It is false and misleading information; it is as simple as that. The Advertiser, which is a respectable newspaper, has been fed false and misleading information by the Defence Teaming Centre. I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that, when this government said that we would spend some $89 billion on fleet building, we were talking about acquisition, not sustainment. We were talking about acquisition. Almost $40 billion will be spent on a fleet build centred in Adelaide on acquisition. It is not on acquisition and sustainment; it is on acquisition.

I will tell you what we have done which members opposite could never do. Let's not forget that members opposite did not place a single naval shipbuilding order with an Australian yard in six years. In six long, wasted years, in six years given up for the locusts to eat when it comes to Defence naval shipbuilding, they did not place one single naval shipbuilding order with an Australian yard. To help fill the valley of death that Labor created, we have brought forward the offshore patrol vessel or corvette build by two years. It will start in three years time—likely in Adelaide. We have brought forward by three years the future frigate order. By 2020 those frigates will be being built in Adelaide. We have offered a future in South Australia for naval shipbuilding in Australia.

See this speech in context