Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government likes to brag about its support for defence, but the truth is this government uses the defence capital budget as an ATM. Only last week we heard that they ripped out $5.2 billion from the defence capital budget. What were the biggest drivers? A $1.2 billion cut because of schedule delays, $560 million spent on a wages blowout instead of equipment and $465 million spent on an ICT blowout. This is a government that cannot manage defence effectively. We've got 36 major projects running, cumulatively 74 years late and $10.3 billion over budget, and that's no surprise given we've had five coalition defence ministers in six years of government. Goldfish last longer than coalition defence ministers, and the result of this is mismanagement.

The current defence minister had a massive five-week apprenticeship as a minister before they became defence minister! How can you take on one of the most challenging jobs in government if you've spent a total of five weeks as a minister before being handed that responsibility? The truth is that the ADF and taxpayers are paying the price for this government's mismanagement, this government's cuts to the defence budget and this government's mismanagement of projects. It's the ADF that suffers.