David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is a very important matter of public importance, because the failure of the Prime Minister to sack the Minister for Defence means that this government now crawls forward with yet another bleeding wound. It is plainly obvious that the Prime Minister must act. Dennis Shanahan posted in The Australian only a short time ago: 'David Johnston's job as defence minister "finished"' And we saw earlier from Paul Kelly, in today's edition of The Australian,that this government now confronts 'a growing crisis of trust'. This is a government going forward with a wounded Minister for Defence, and it cannot stand. The real tragedy and atrocity here is that the Australian Defence Force—its men and women—are currently on operations in the Middle East while being led by a bumbling minister. And this is not a minister who has been bumbling for a day, or for hours, but he has been bumbling for 15 months. This is known to those opposite.

Over the last 12 months, the Minister for Defence has given 40 speeches and interviews, while the foreign affairs minister has given 200. This is a minister who has been in the witness protection program of the Prime Minister for quite some time. When Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced 600 ADF personnel were to be deployed to the Middle East, he had standing by his side the Chief of the Defence Force. But where was the defence minister? He remained in hiding. And so, as this country sent its people into war, we saw Hugh White, Professor of Strategic Studies at the ANU, make the remark: 'He was incapable of answering the most basic of questions about why we are undertaking this military operation.' For 15 months, we have seen this minister deal with nothing but inaction and failure. You might recall, some short time ago, it took the minister two weeks to respond to claims made about the alleged mistreatment of asylum seekers by Royal Australian Navy sailors. And when he finally emerged, he said, 'I have not said much because, I have to confess, I was extremely angry and I have required some period of time to cool off.' Well, here is a man who lacks the temperament to be the Minister for Defence. Such a man has his finger on the trigger? Be reassured that he does not have his finger on the trigger. The Prime Minister and his colleagues have made sure that in fact this Minister for Defence has very little responsibility at all.

At the Australian Strategic Policy Institute submarine conference David Johnston began his contribution by saying, 'I have been told to say this and I have been told not to deviate from my speech.' He is on a very tight leash indeed. Most spectacularly of all, when asked to explain his absence at a meeting of the National Security Committee—a meeting of the NSC held while Australians are at war—he said, 'I didn't have much to add.' At the very beginning of his time as Minister for Defence he found himself overruled by the Prime Minister on the composition of his white paper planning team. It is the most fundamental of responsibilities in his portfolio and one with which he was not trusted.

The atrocities continue. We saw retired Major General Molan appear after a mere three weeks of service with the minister, which was all he could take of working with a minister who was in fact responsible for nothing. Major General Molan is a loyal, Liberal advocate—he is seeking Liberal party preselection in New South Wales. Notwithstanding those allegiances, when it came to criticising the minister he said, 'That's a conclusion you can come to. I'll have something to say with others in private.' Clearly he did, because this Minister for Defence remains absolutely in the witness protection program.

Broken promises have been a spectacular feature of Senator Johnston's time. He stood at the Australian Submarine Corporation in South Australia on 8 May 2013 and said:

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

…   …   …

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

That is a promise that has not survived first contact, but it is plain to all of us that it is a promise they should keep or that at the very least they should bring themselves to ensure that there is an open tender for this multibillion dollar, multidecade policy.

Senator Johnston came into office as defence minister after intimating to the shipbuilding industry that he would bridge the valley of death by commissioning a fourth air warfare destroyer, another undertaking that did not survive first contact. Then, when talking about rescuing the shipbuilding industry in this country, he commissioned the Winter review. On the basis of that review he has denigrated the industry again and again and again. But what is the most striking feature of the Winter review, Deputy Speaker? No-one knows—

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