Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

(—) (): Our government has worked closely with ASC since we were elected to get the air warfare destroyer project back on track. As a result of the government's reforms to the air warfare destroyer program it remains on schedule and on budget, as per previous announcements made by the government, and the program has seen significant improvements in terms of cost, performance and labour productivity. We expect delivery of the first ship by June 2017, delivery of the second ship by July 2018 and delivery of the third ship by December 2019. It is also worth noting that Collins class sustainment is going exceptional well, with submarine availability consistently exceeding the targets set by Navy. The ASC noted in a press release today that they had effectively been operating separate submarine and shipbuilding businesses for the last two years. The chair, Bruce Carter, commented that this operating model has been a major contributing factor in the company's turnaround in the Collins class submarine and Hobart class air warfare destroyer programs— (Time expired).