PARLIAMENTARY REPORT
AUSTRALIA
SENATE CENSURES DEFENCE MINISTER
On 25 November 2014, the Defence Minister, Senator the Hon. David Johnston, during question time, responded to a question about the future tender process for Australia’s submarine fleet. In responding, Senator Johnston made disparaging remarks about the government owned Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC). Senator Johnston stated that “ASC was delivering no submarines in 2009 for $1 billion. They have now improved their output, thankfully, after two or three visits from Mr Coles to tell them how to do it properly. They are $350 million over budget on three air-warfare destroyer builds. I am being conservative. It is probably more than $600 million but because the data is so bad I cannot tell you. You wonder why I am worried about ASC and what they are delivering to the Australian taxpayer! Do you wonder why I wouldn’t trust them to build a canoe?” On 26 November, Senator Johnston sought and was granted leave to make a statement clarifying the critical comments he made about the ASC. He stated that “regrettably, in rhetorical flourish, I did express my frustrations in the past performance of the Australian Submarine Corporation. In these comments, I did not intend to cause offence. May I say on the record here and now that I regret that offence may have been taken. I of course was directing
my remarks at a legacy of issues and certainly not at the workers in ASC, who may have, to my regret, taken offence at those remarks. I consider them to be world class.”
Notwithstanding these comments, the Senate later censured Senator Johnston for the damaging remarks he made about the ASC and in particular the comment that he would not trust them to build a canoe. The Leader of Opposition business, Senator the Hon. Penny Wong moved that the Senate censures the Minister for Defence for among other things “insulting the men and women of ASC Pty Ltd (ASC) by stating he ‘wouldn’t trust them to build a canoe’; and ‘undermining confidence in Australia’s defence capability.” Senator Wong stated that Senator Johnston “made an extraordinary attack on the Australian Submarine Corporation yesterday, an attack that insulted the company and its workforce, undermined confidence in Australia’s defence capability and jeopardised the integrity of one of the nation’s biggest-ever Defence procurement contracts.” Senator Wong further noted that “this minister needs to be censured. He has already been cut adrift by his own colleagues, from the Prime Minister down. The Prime Minister issued a statement last night which is nothing other than a statement of no
62| The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue One
Senator the Hon. David Johnston
confidence in this minister, a statement which completely repudiates the minister’s comments. The Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Mr Briggs, said his comments were wrong.” The Leader of the
Government in the Senate, Senator the Hon. Eric Abetz, in defending Senator Johnstonm, noted that “what I would say to those opposite and especially the crossbenchers is this: those that move censure motions need to come into this place with clean hands. When you see Senator Wong’s past performance as a failed finance minister and as the failed climate change minister – remember, the greatest moral challenge of our time was climate change. Everything had to stop to fix it. And then, all of a sudden, it was just jettisoned like a used tissue, to be thrown away and forgotten about as though it had never previously existed. This is that sort of passion and commitment.
It is faux passion. It is faux commitment. It is just pretence on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.” The Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Christine Milne, in support of the censure motion, noted that such a motion makes it clear that a minister is accountable and responsible to the Senate. Senator Milne commented that while Senator Johnston noted that he never intended to cause offence and that he regrets his comments, he did not apologise. Senator Milne stated that “he said he ‘regrets’. In his statement to this Senate earlier today, before this happened, he did not say that he was sorry, just that he regretted that offence had been taken. Well, offence was taken, and offence was rightly taken, because it was a clear inference that the workers, the people at the Australian Submarine Corporation, were not up to the job.”
Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie, in support of the motion, stated that “the government created the crisis surrounding Australian shipbuilding because of a failure of leadership by the defence minister and the PM. The defence minister should be sacked or, even better, should have enough integrity to resign for his incompetence and lack of honesty. That might buy the PM some time; however, we
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