Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Somebody ought to put the lid back on the chip packet—please, so I can say what I would like to say. They might have a chance to say what they would like to say later. The Labor Party clearly dropped the ball. We have heard numerous times in this chamber that when we came to government there was nothing in the plan for submarines, and we have had to start to build that plan. That is what we are working on. We had a plan, which the Labor Party failed to do two years ago. As I said earlier, this decision should have been made two years ago, a year before we came to government. So we find ourselves in the situation of having to clean up another mess that the Labor Party left. Defence employment fell by 10 per cent because of budget cuts and deferrals. That is what we are doing.

What is the Labor Party's legacy in respect of submarines? They took $20 billion out of the budget for the future submarine program. Where was the South Australian Labor government during that period of time? In fact, where were the South Australian Labor members during that period of time? We did not hear a word from them at that point in time. Because of the complete failure of the Labor Party to act we have been left with having to pick up after them and having to develop a plan. We have to build a program and then we have to implement it.