Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

But let me give you further and good information, since you obviously do not know it, Senator Carr. It was the coalition government that brought forward the Pacific patrol boat tender. It closed last Wednesday at 2 pm. And what was the Labor Party's only other commitment to the naval industry with regard to fleet size while they were in government? It was the purchase from the United Kingdom of what became the HMAS Choules, on which I had the pleasure of being, in Fremantle harbour, when it was named and commissioned.

As to the decisions by these companies to reduce their workforce, were they anything to do with the coalition government? Not on your nelly! It was, in fact, as Attorney-General Brandis told us, the trades hall secretary Mr Daniel Wallace who said that the unions and shipbuilding firms had been warning the Labor government since they were in power in 2010-11, and it was Defence—if only the then minister had bothered to listen—under the Labor government that had advised the government, back in 2011 or earlier, that they must commence construction of new naval ships or indeed they would lose the contract.

This afternoon I heard Senator McEwen in her senator's statement talking at some length about the pride with which everyone was associated the other day when the Hobart was launched. Well, as Senator Gallacher and Senator Carr and Senator Conroy would know, and as I am sure Senator Cameron should know, that project, the Air Warfare Destroyer project, was commissioned under the Howard government by the then defence minister, the proud South Australian, Robert Hill. Robert Hill signed the contracts and funded the project, and he has seen the benefit of the first of those vessels having been launched the other day.

Senator McEwen was talking about the apprehension of everybody around what the future might be. I wonder whether Senator McEwen might have gone and explained to those people why there needed to be any apprehension at all. The simple reason was that Labor went to sleep at the wheel during its time in government. Not only did they not commission one warship to be constructed in this country, but they took billions of dollars out of the Defence budget when Mr Stephen Smith was the Defence minister. We see a circumstance this afternoon where, regrettably, the Labor Party—amnesia writ large—did nothing when they were in government. Now the coalition is getting on with the job, only to be vilified by the very people who know deep down—and this includes the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Wong, a South Australian—that they did nothing.

To answer Senator Carr's question: what has the coalition done? We are there supporting the naval shipbuilding industry. In June of last year, 12 months ago now, we brought forward the $78 million for the design work to retain the option of the future frigates. In December 2014, we announced that we were working with industry to fix the AWD program, a program that needed fixing because Labor did nothing during their time in government. That will create the industry around the fleet of future frigates. They need not go to Spain. They can be built here because of the excellence of this government. In February, the Defence minister announced the competitive evaluation process for the construction of our Future Submarine program. We stand proud. (Time expired)