3 years ago
DELAYED DECISIONS ON COLLINS CLASS SUBS COSTING BILLIONS
BRENDAN O’CONNOR MP
Speculation about multi-billion-dollar changes to Australia’s Collins Class Submarines comes after the Government ignored advice proposing these changes seven years ago.
The Government has ignored the capability gaps in our submarines over the past eight years, under six ministers, and we have seen cost blowouts, delayed decisions, bungled contracts and dubious tender processes on our submarine programs.
Now the Government’s scrambling to fix the issue with still no decision made.
Because we have a Government that didn’t have the faith in Australian industry to even “build a canoe”, we are now years behind where we should be and it has left a gaping hole in our capability.
Back in December 2012, Labor announced the completion of a study showing the life of the Collins Class could be extended beyond 2024. It found that the service life could be extended by one operating cycle for the fleet.
An FOI request revealed that within months of forming Government in 2013, the then Defence Minister received advice that she should be considering exactly what is proposed in today’s media reports.
The Government has chosen to ignore this advice for seven years, instead choosing to politicise and ruin the process. It appears they are now planning to go back to a decade-old plan they should have considered then.
These speculated changes to the Collins Class submarines are not surprising given the Future Submarine program is running 10 years late and $40 billion over budget
This failure arises because the Government never ran a proper competitive tender process.
In the interest of our national security and for the safety of our Defence personnel the Minister needs to stop the delay and make a decision on how many Collins Class submarines will be extended, when they will be extended, where this work will be done and disclose the cost to the taxpayer.
The Government is also still yet to announce its plans for Full Cycle Docking, a vital program for the Collins Class that will have serious implications for any parallel Life Of Type Extensions, despite promising to announce the location by the end on 2019.
There are 700 workers in Adelaide who need to know whether full cycle docking would stay in South Australia or move to Western Australian.
With six Defence Ministers in eight years, our major defence projects are being mismanaged with long delays, costs blowouts and capability issues.
The Government has ignored the capability gaps in our submarines over the past eight years, under six ministers, and we have seen cost blowouts, delayed decisions, bungled contracts and dubious tender processes on our submarine programs.
Now the Government’s scrambling to fix the issue with still no decision made.
Because we have a Government that didn’t have the faith in Australian industry to even “build a canoe”, we are now years behind where we should be and it has left a gaping hole in our capability.
Back in December 2012, Labor announced the completion of a study showing the life of the Collins Class could be extended beyond 2024. It found that the service life could be extended by one operating cycle for the fleet.
An FOI request revealed that within months of forming Government in 2013, the then Defence Minister received advice that she should be considering exactly what is proposed in today’s media reports.
The Government has chosen to ignore this advice for seven years, instead choosing to politicise and ruin the process. It appears they are now planning to go back to a decade-old plan they should have considered then.
These speculated changes to the Collins Class submarines are not surprising given the Future Submarine program is running 10 years late and $40 billion over budget
This failure arises because the Government never ran a proper competitive tender process.
In the interest of our national security and for the safety of our Defence personnel the Minister needs to stop the delay and make a decision on how many Collins Class submarines will be extended, when they will be extended, where this work will be done and disclose the cost to the taxpayer.
The Government is also still yet to announce its plans for Full Cycle Docking, a vital program for the Collins Class that will have serious implications for any parallel Life Of Type Extensions, despite promising to announce the location by the end on 2019.
There are 700 workers in Adelaide who need to know whether full cycle docking would stay in South Australia or move to Western Australian.
With six Defence Ministers in eight years, our major defence projects are being mismanaged with long delays, costs blowouts and capability issues.