David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I say to the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate that when this government came to power it presumed that there had been something done on the two options that were left to the government on SEA 1000. What we have ascertained is that all of the theatre surrounding the reduction from four options—that is, a MOTS and a modified MOTS to son of Collins and a bespoke design; moving to son of Collins and a bespoke design—was in fact theatre.

There was in fact no work being done on those two remaining options. Indeed, what was happening was the Labor government was taking money out of the submarine program; just ripping it off. The proof of that pudding is that there is no contract, no commitment and no obligation on the government to do anything with respect to submarines in Adelaide. You would have thought that South Australian Labor—