Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon. As I said, the potential level of Australian industry involvement in each of these proposals will definitely be considered as part of the evaluation of the tenders. But the fact is that the problem we are facing today is that the Labor government sat on their hands for six years and did nothing to even start the process to replace the Success and the Sirius. They did nothing at a point in time when it may have been possible to actually have an Australian build—absolutely nothing at that point in time. In fact, they did not commission one single naval vessel from an Australian shipyard in six years. That is where the valley of death came from—right across there. The Turnbull government will have a naval shipbuilding plan which will set out a pathway to help ameliorate Labor's valley of death. But, unfortunately, the only people who could have prevented it are right there. (Time expired)