Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Eight years after the coalition came into government, the replacement submarine program is still clouded in uncertainty and secrecy. It has been a similar story with the Collins class full-cycle docking work, which has also become a debacle. Defence experts continue to raise legitimate questions about the new submarine design, the contractual arrangements and the delivery timetable. In a clear acknowledgement of the fiasco, the defence minister has now announced that, to avoid a capability gap, the life of the Collins class submarines will be extended by a decade at a reported cost of between $6 billion and $10 billion. Work on the first replacement submarines is expected to commence in 2025—that is, 12 years after the coalition came to office—and to be completed in around 2035. The cost, which started out $20 billion under the Abbott government and then went to $50 billion, has now blown out to $89 billion. Every single major national project for which the Morrison government has had responsibility has been a disaster—the NBN, the NDIS, aged care, and now the COVID vaccination and national quarantine system. The Morrison government's incompetence is costing billions of dollars and leaving Australia vulnerable, and the Morrison government's political spin is wearing thin.