Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to clean up the defence procurement mess left by the previous government?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Pearce for her very important question. In coming to office, the Albanese Labor government has inherited a defence procurement mess. When those opposite were in power, there were 28 different programs that were running a total of 97 years over time. The Hunter class frigates were four years late and $15 billion over budget. The Spartan battlefield aircraft was 4½ years late and unable to fly into a battlefield. The offshore patrol vessels were a year late and the evolved Cape class patrol vessels were another year late. That's before we even start talking about submarines. When it came to defence announcements, those opposite were best-in-class. There was vaudeville, hoopla; we saw Top Gun music—it was always showtime.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Nationals will cease interjecting.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was as if they were trying to tap-dance our adversaries into submission.

With those opposite, their strategy was to have Australia walk onto the battlefield—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Nationals will cease interjecting.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Their strategy was to have Australia walk onto the battlefield armed with press releases. But when it came to actually delivering capability, getting the hard power equation right, those opposite were the single worst defence procurement government in our nation's history, and not least because they themselves were a picture of chaos. In nine years we had six—really seven—different defence ministers, the last of whom is sitting right there as the Leader of the Opposition. And all of this was at a time when we were facing the most precarious strategic circumstances since the Second World War. Under those opposite, Australia's lost decade could not have come at a more damaging historic moment.

Under Labor it's going to be different. We are getting back to the basics, establishing an independent project management office within Defence. We understand defence projects are large, they are complex and they don't always go right, which is why it's so important that you have objective criteria and metrics before projects are put on the Projects of Interest / Projects of Concern list. When they are, we're going to make sure that there are monthly reports to ministers so that we can get those projects back on track. In other words, we are going to actively manage defence procurement, because we get that the Defence budget is going to increase, which is why it's so important that the quality of defence expenditure is excellent—so that we can deliver value for money to taxpayers and much better capabilities which keep Australians safe.