Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry, Procurement and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question arising out of that response from the minister, which was essentially accurate. If private financing of essential Defence projects such as this, and outlined by the minister, represents value for money, as the defence minister claims, shouldn’t the government show its own benchmarks to justify how this is so as opposed to merely asserting such? In that context, how is it possible for a building pegged at a cost of $339 million in this year’s budget papers to end up costing taxpayers more than $1.2 billion?