SENATOR PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Today we saw a Minister under pressure in Question Time launching an outrageous attack on Australian workers. An outrageous attack on the men and women we trust to keep our submariners safe. The men behind me, who work to make sure we can maintain our naval capability. An outrageous attack on workers, particularly on those who work in South Australia. Completely unwarranted.
And what I would say is this: I know that David Johnstons under pressure, everybody knows that. But he should do the honourable thing as a Minister. He should go into the Senate today, he should withdraw what he said, and he should apologise, to the workers who are standing behind me, and to all the men and women who work so hard to keep our submariners and sailors safe.
SENATOR STEPHEN CONROY, DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Thanks. Clearly, from the attitude of the Minister I mean, if you can say something like I wouldnt let the ASC build a canoe there is no possibility of a fair process in the Governments selection process for our new submarines. It is clear that they are determined for them not to be built in Australia.
The French, the Swedes, the Germans, have all said they can build them here in Australia. The ASC have said they can build them in Australia. Only one bid that we know of is not to build them in Australia, and thats the Japanese bid.
So you have to ask yourself, no matter what process that the Government set up, and announced that theyre going to set up, can we have any confidence in, when the Minister is so determined for these submarines to be not built here in Australia, and in Adelaide.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) shooting himself in the foot?
CONROY: Well I think todays outburst was just as Penny said: a Minister who is flailing around. He has completely mishandled the Defence pay issue. Its now under consideration, and the Minister has said repeatedly therell be no change. Steven Ciobo this morning said thered be no change. But what were hearing today is, yet again, the Ministers been sidelined. Tony Abbott is now negotiating with Jacqui Lambie about an increase. So the Minister has been sidelined.
We know for a fact, its open knowledge, that the Prime Ministers staff are running the bid for the submarines. Its being driven from the Prime Ministers office, and the Minister has again been sidelined. This is a Minister that doesnt have the confidence of the Prime Minister. This is a Minister who doesnt have the confidence of his own colleagues. And he should, as Penny said, go back into the chamber and apologise to some of the people were standing in front of right now.
The workers at ASC I recently toured there do a fantastic job. And despite the ongoing claims by the Prime Minister, and by the Minister, the productivity levels there are improving. The productivity levels at Williamstown hit all the benchmarks. And what we are seeing is a despicable attack and undermining of the workforce simply to pursue a political end of giving the submarine build to the Japanese.
JOURNALIST: Senator Johnston says that Senator Wong knew about all the problems at ASC, and that theres price tag of $80 billion. Theres some document, somewhere.
WONG: Theres a lot of things Senator Johnston says in Question Time which I think dont make a lot of sense. And you saw, an example of that today. But lets understand what this Minister has done in the last twelve months. He made a promise to build twelve submarines here in Australia, at Adelaide. He has then spent months trying to crab-walk away from that promise, and today he trashed the reputation of workers, submarine maintenance workers, at the ASC. Now, that is a Minister who really needs to lift his game. And as I said, he should walk back into the Senate chamber and do the honourable thing, which is to withdraw, and to apologise.
JOURNALIST: So theres no $80 billion price tag on a document that (inaudible)
WONG: If hes so confident about that he can table the document. What I would refer you to though is, we had evidence at the Senate Estimates Committee about that figure, and the ASC gentleman said he doesnt know where that figure came from.
JOURNALIST: What do you make about the canoe comment in particular? Whats your response to (inaudible)?
WONG: What a devastating thing for Australias Defence Minister to say. I mean, he is calling into question Australias defence capability. Thats what hes done today. Its irresponsible, and it is an outrageous slur on those workers who spend so much of their effort and time dedicated to making sure that the Australians we send out in our submarines are safe.
JOURNALIST: What do you think it means for the Future Frigates as well?
CONROY: This is part of the ongoing commitment that to be fair that the Howard government setup with bi-partisan support that we wanted build the capacity so that we had continuous flow of work for our defence shipbuilding and submarine building industry. Its only this government thats started turning its back on John Howards policy.
Weve already seen with the supply ships that no Australian company was allowed to tender for the supply ships. It was only a Spanish company and a Korean company.
Weve now seen an attempt to trash the workforce as a pathetic excuse to give the submarines to Japan and what weve got to see is a government that stands up and tells the truth. Keep its commitments and tell the truth.
Weve already seen improved productivity at Williamstown; weve seen improved productivity at Forgacs; weve seen improved productivity at ASC and we always understood that in the early stages wed have a lower level of productivity as we learnt.
So all of the evidence is available, except theres one document that this government wont table and thats the Winter Report. David Johnston commissioned the Winter Report written by John White. There are many claims about whats in that report, but we understand that this is a report that talks about how we could continue all of our ship building industry here in Australia.
So release the report. Lets have some honesty from David Johnston. Release the report and lets then have an honest discussion about Australias ship building future.
JOURNALIST: How do you think Sophie Mirabella feels about the comments made by the Senator?
WONG: Well, she is a member of the Board, so Id be interested to see if she supports what the Minister has said. Id be interested you should ask Minister Cormann, if he also believes what the Minister has said is appropriate. Hes the shareholder Minister, its up to him to defend them.
JOURNALIST: Can we hear from the workers how they feel about the comment?
ANDREW DANIELS, ASC WORKER: Its pretty disgusting. Theres 3000 ASC workers across two states, South Australia and Western Australia. And we do our best. We maintain submarines, and we also build AWDs.
Theres no way that we would put at risk our sailors, Australian sailors. No way would we be giving them second-class work, shoddy jobs, or anything like that. We give them the best. Thats what our job is, to maintain the submarines, to build the best AWDs. We will do that, we will continue to do that.
Weve got an Acting CEO whos doing a great job, a fantastic job. Hes got us ahead of schedule in our contract on the submarines. We are ahead. And were looking at we will commit, and make that two-year cycle. So were doing really well there. The warships, theyre doing well, the second ship is coming along. Its fantastic to see because we can see it from the fence from the submarine side. Thats coming along fantastic, they are doing a brilliant job.
And here we are, were being trashed. Well I go home to my family, and this guys telling me Im useless. And I dont feel useless. Thats pretty gutting to 3000 workers in South Australia and Western Australia. Its not a great feeling to have your Defence Minister, who youre out there doing your best job for, for the country, and hes trashing it. Thats not good.
WONG: Thanks everyone.
ENDS