Reports in todays Adelaide Advertiser show that even the Prime Minister is distancing himself from Finance Minister Mathias Cormanns outrageous attacks on Australias shipbuilding industry.
During Senate Estimates this week, Senator Cormann attempted to defend the timing of the Abbott Governments so called forensic audit into the Air Warfare Destroyer project last week.
Yet Senator Cormman was forced to admit that he had not even bothered to read the full report of the so-called forensic audit.
Now we have learned that the Prime Ministers Office has criticised Senator Cormanns handling of this matter, accusing him of poor judgement and even using expletive-laden language to describe his release of the report.
This admission follows a leak from the Liberal party room that South Australian MPs had openly questioned the Prime Minister about the timing of the reports release.
Acknowledgement of Senator Cormanns mistake will be cold comfort for the workers at ASC.
The Government has repeatedly attacked the skills of ASC staff in an attempt to justify Tony Abbotts Captains Pick to offshore our Future Submarines to Japan.
These leaks further confirm the Abbott Governments chaos and dishonesty on submarines and shipbuilding.
The uncertainty this Government has created for Australias shipbuilding industry has resulted in 120 jobs lost at ASC thus far.
This is on top of the loss of 450 jobs at Forgacs in Newcastle and hundreds of jobs at BAE in Williamstown.
Thousands more are at risk.
The Abbott Governments broken promises are hurting jobs, hurting the economy, and creating uncertainty for our defence force.
Our shipbuilding industry and these workers deserve better than this.
They deserve a rational shipbuilding plan to preserve this important strategic capability as well as the jobs and investment that come with it.