Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence. I refer the minister to the CEO of submarine builder TKMS Australia, who told the ABC that TKMS could deliver 12 submarines that met Australian requirements for $20 billion, with the price including 'all the programmatic aspects to deliver the submarine in Australia'. Given that the minister has now been caught out by claiming that there is a capability timing gap if our new submarines are built in Australia, does he stand by government claims that Australian built submarines will cost between $50 billion and $80 billion?