Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I have concerns about a variety of our acquisitions. It is an issue of process that I am concerned about now, and I will use the Joint Strike Fighter as an indicator. Let's just put aside the issue of capability. At the moment the cost is probably at least double that which was originally suggested close to 10 years ago. It will arrive at least eight years late. Defence keeps on with platitudes that everything is fine with the program, yet we are having all sorts of opportunity costs that we have to meet, such as the Super Hornet. What processes and milestones are you putting in place to ensure that this is not a matter of an open chequebook, that this project does not just keep going on and on with prices increasing more and more and schedules slipping further and further to the right? As I said, this is an issue of process rather than necessarily specifically about the Joint Strike Fighter.

See this speech in context