John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ellison, the Minister representing the Minister for Defence. I refer the minister to last week’s decision by the Navy to order the entire Armidale class patrol boat fleet to remain in port because of fears that faulty fuel pumps could endanger crews. Is it not a fact that a similar problem occurred in late 2006 and the Navy was forced to stop all Armidale class patrol boat operations until the fuel pumps were replaced? As a result of these problems, hasn’t the Navy been forced to recommission the old Fremantle patrol boats, which were being decommissioned, to cover the non-use of the new Armidale patrol boats? Isn’t the Navy also using eight Bay class boats from Customs to help fill the void of the missing Armidale patrol boats, and hasn’t this severely reduced the operational activities of both the Navy and Customs for the protection of our coastline?