House debates Questions without Notice
Defence Procurement
Colin Boyce Flynn, Liberal National Party
2:46 pm
My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Can the minister nominate a single major defence vessel that Labor commissioned between the years 2007 and 2013?
Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this
Hon. Members:
Honourable members interjecting—
Milton Dick Speaker
Order! Members on my left and the minister for climate change. The Minister for Home Affairs will cease interjecting. I want to hear from the Leader of the House.
Mr Tony Burke Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Mr Speaker, I'm just trying to find any part of that question that's part of the minister's current responsibility.
Paul Fletcher Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy
Mr Speaker, it clearly goes to precisely the matters that the minister has just been talking about.
Milton Dick Speaker
The difficulty with that is that you didn't link it to his former answer. If that had happened, the question would have been in order. I'm going to allow it. It's a very, very loose question, and the minister is entitled to answer that question any way he sees fit.
Pat Conroy Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry
2:48 pm
Thank you for that very generous question. It's rare to get a dixer from the opposition. I got one last week and I got another one today. I'm invited to contrast our performance on defence with that of those opposite, and I'll do that any day. Let's start with defence ministers. They had 12 defence and defence industry ministers, and what did that lead to? Twenty-eight major projects being cumulatively 97 years late. Let's go through some of my favourites.
Milton Dick Speaker
The minister will resume his seat, and I'll hear from the Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.
Peter Dutton Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition
Mr Speaker, it'll come as no surprise to you that this is a point of order on relevance. The minister was asked a question which you allowed and ruled in order. The question couldn't have been clearer or tighter. It said: 'Can the minister nominate a single major defence vessel that Labor commissioned between the years of 2007 and 2013?' I'll give him a hint: it's less than one.
Honourable members interjecting—
Milton Dick Speaker
The House will come to order. The minister is being relevant and he continues with his answer.
Pat Conroy Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry
I'm proud of the fact that construction of the Air Warfare Destroyers began in 2009. I'm proud of that. I'm proud that we had to intervene in that project to save jobs in Melbourne—
Milton Dick Speaker
The member for Fairfax will leave the chamber under 94(a).
The member for Fairfax then left the chamber.
Pat Conroy Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry
when they gave part of that contract to a tin-pot company in North Queensland that had two employees. They tasked a company that had two staff members with building our air warfare destroyers. I'm proud to talk about defence any time.
Twenty-eight major projects, 97 years late. Let's go through some of the highlights: $1½ billion on battle lift aircraft that can't fly into battlefields. That's my favourite. Goldfish lasted longer than defence ministers under those opposite. Let's go through some of the other projects: helicopters where the door wasn't wide enough to fire a machine gun while soldiers came out. That's another good one. If they want to go back further: the Seasprite helicopter, where those opposite spent $1.4 billion and delivered zero helicopters.
So we're proud to have delivered the air warfare destroyer. We're proud to be making record investments in defence. We're proud to have members in this government who actually want to be in this portfolio. By contrast, they had a defence minister who said he wouldn't trust the workers of Adelaide to build a canoe. That's why they wanted to send the submarines off to Japan. That's why we're building the submarines in Adelaide. That's why they wanted to build the submarines in Japan. We're proud of our record. They are all press release, not about delivery at all—
Opposition members interjecting—
Pat Conroy Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry
unlike us, who will deliver for defence and will deliver for our nation.
Honourable members interjecting—
Milton Dick Speaker
Order! The House will come to order. There is far too much noise. Question time will be heard in silence.