Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I am afraid I do have to disagree with the sentiments of the senator's question. There hasn't been the increasing trend that the senator has referred to in the last sentence of her question. It is a matter of the former Defence Materiel Organisation coming into Defence's numbers. What I can say, though, is that the government's first principles review of defence considered all issues surrounding procurement in Defence, particularly as part of the capability life cycle. That was a coalition election commitment from 2013, which was kicked off by our former colleague and minister Senator Johnston, and the outcomes of the FPR are an outstanding piece of work and a most valuable contribution by Senator Johnston.

We've introduced new Smart Buyer arrangements to better establish exactly when limited tender arrangements should be used. It actually makes sense sometimes to use a limited tender when there are only a limited number of suppliers, or even a single supplier, of specialist defence materiel. It saves other companies money by not competing for something they can't win. It saves the Commonwealth and the taxpayer money. (Time expired)