Minister for Defence - Doorstop interview – ASPI Conference, ‘Defence White Paper: From Page to Reality’, Canberra

Subjects: 2016 Defence White Paper, Competitive Evaluation Process, submarine tender

JOURNALIST:

Minister, you said that Australia will choose an international partner for the submarine program. When will that decision be made and will it be before the election?

MARISE PAYNE:

Well, I've made it very clear that it will be made this year and we have a Competitive Evaluation Process underway. I’m not going to add to those remarks because I think it is important to maintain that position and the integrity of that position and that has been stated by the Government so that is where I’m going to leave that.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, your colleague Minister Pyne, has indicated that some decision is likely before the election, some announcement, perhaps that submarines could be built in Adelaide. Now is that likely?

MINISTER PAYNE:

Brendan, the Competitive Evaluation Process is underway. It is a very important process that has a framework around it, it has a significant arrangement around it. I’m not going to make any other comment other than to say that, as that process comes to fruition, that an announcement will be made in 2016.

JOURNALIST:

But Minister, that means you’re not correcting Minister Pyne, do his remarks stand, do those not concern you?

MINISTER PAYNE:

I’m not engaging in that debate, Paul. I’m simply saying that as I have said, completely consistently since the 21^st of September last year, that there is a Competitive Evaluation Process underway for submarines and that an announcement would be made in 2016. I don’t have anything else to add to that

JOURNALIST:

The CEP evaluation is essentially complete though isn't it?

MINISTER PAYNE:

I don’t have anything else to add.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, do you think the voters in South Australia will feel a sense of uncertainty over this before the election?

MINISTER PAYNE:

I think the entire nation, in fact, is benefiting from a number of the initiatives of the Turnbull Government. Whether it’s the innovation and science agenda, whether it’s the work that we are doing in the Defence space, whether it’s the work that we are doing in competition reform. We are in fact, across a number of areas, working very hard for the voters of the entire country and particularly South Australia – of course with a number of my colleagues from South Australia.

That doesn’t meant that I’m not going to protect the integrity around what is a very important Competitive Evaluation Process for acquisition of the Future Submarines, the largest acquisition that we are likely to make anytime soon. Now that process was set in place, I am continuing that process. It interests me a lot that some on the other side on one hand want to pick away at the process and say you should do this now, you should make that announcement there, and when they decide perhaps there's an issue they don't agree with, then they think I'm not observing the integrity of the CEP. Well I am observing the integrity of the CEP on all counts.

JOURNALIST:

Well Minister, but there's dual processes here, one is the integrity of the CEP process and you are absolutely right to be defending that. The other is political reality, and the Turnbull Government could find itself in exactly the same position as the Abbott Government was in, facing losing several seats because of the uncertainty over the whole submarine building process or the shipbuilding process generally. Is that an issue that concerns you?

MINISTER PAYNE:

They’re your words, Brendan, not mine. I am saying very clearly that the Government has a process in place. It is very thorough, it is very comprehensive. I am going to ensure that that process continues in the normal way it would and that an announcement is going to be made in 2016. I am not going to add to my comments.

JOURNALIST:

It’s also very nearly finished, isn’t it? I mean, we all know this to be the case. Can you understand South Australian MPs concern that you may end up going to this election with a less clear and concrete promise than you had had at the last election?

MINISTER PAYNE:

Well no, that’s an assertion that you make and a number of people make all sorts of assertions every day of every week in every newspaper and in every media outlet in the country. What I have been crystal clear in saying, both publicly to my colleagues and more broadly, that there is a strong, very rigid, sorry, very ordered process in place to undertake a Competitive Evaluation Process. Three submissions, three sets of categories that each of those submissions need to address. That evaluation process has been taking place this year or in fact since November last year, as you know when submissions were received and an announcement will be made in 2016. I am not going to add to my comments.

JOURNALIST:

Surely Minister though, you can sympathise with the plight of Government MPs in South Australia who are feeling the political heat over this? Shouldn't you put them out of their misery sooner rather than later?

MINISTER PAYNE:

That’s an unfortunate turn of phrase if I might say, but the most important thing that I am able to do, in working with my colleagues, is to deliver the best possible capability outcome for Australia in relation to the Future Submarines. That is going to be the most important decision that we make in terms of acquisition in the history of governments in this country, in my view. It is important that it is done the right way. That is the commitment that I make.

JOURNALIST:

I am going to change the subject, Minister, which may or may not be a good thing; one of your now parliamentary colleagues, Andrew Hastie, about nine months ago, called on Defence to resolve this situation of a SAS soldier who’s still being investigated over a hand chopping affair in Afghanistan. As far as we know that still hasn’t been resolved and I understand Mr Hastie has written to you urging you to apply some pressure to make sure that is expedited as quickly as possible. Where is that up to and why hasn’t it been resolved?

MINISTER PAYNE:

I haven’t seen Mr Hastie’s letter and I am sure that it’s on its way to me. It is a matter that is under continued investigation, as far as I’m aware, and I’m not going to comment on a matter of a formal investigation in that way but I will certainly respond to Mr Hastie’s letter.

JOURNALIST:

Are you concerned that is has taken so long?

MINISTER PAYNE:

Well I think it’s important that proper investigative processes are undertaken and I obviously respect those processes. I will look at Mr Hastie’s letter and respond accordingly.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, can I come back to submarines just quickly. When you say regionally superior, can I just ask, what’s guiding you in terms of, do you want to see a boat that is regionally superior or the very best boat available in terms of, sort of, the global tasks that may confront us?

MINISTER PAYNE:

I think they are the same thing, actually.

JOURNALIST:

Do you want the most capable, or capable enough?

MINISTER PAYNE:

Well we need submarines that are regionally superior to do the task that the Australian Navy and Australian Governments ask them to do. That means acquiring the best possible capability we can to fit the needs of the regional superiority intent. I think, probably, there’s not a lot of difference between the two points that you make.

JOURNALIST:

I’m wondering how much budget constraints might play into that?

MINISTER PAYNE:

Well, the Integrated Investment Program sets out in broad, as you know, the envelope within which we are working. The contenders were asked to make submissions based on the three processes that were identified by one of my predecessors. We will wait to see the outcome of the Competitive Evaluation Process. That’s not only an excuse to start those questions again, we’ll wait to see the outcome of the Competitive Evaluation Process in due course and an announcement will be made accordingly. I am confident that the capability that we select and go onto acquire will be a regionally superior submarine; the best that the Australia Navy needs.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, when Mr Turnbull became Prime Minister, he made much of the need for innovation in Australian industry. Projects like shipbuilding, ships above the surface and below it, would appear to be an incredibly appropriate vehicle for innovation, drawing it from the Australian population, drawing on externally into Australia and benefitting industry in general.

MINISTER PAYNE:

I agree completely.

JOURNALIST:

So you support the idea of shipbuilding in Australia as an area for innovation?

MINISTER PAYNE:

Of course. The opportunities are not boundless, they are not endless, but they are enormous. Absolutely enormous. If you think about what we are going to undertake and what we actually have in play, the Competitive Evaluation Process for 12 Offshore Patrol Vessels, Competitive Evaluation Process for nine Future Frigates; all of those will be built in Australia. The Future Frigates are specified as being built in Adelaide.

The entire country though, as I said inside, can contribute to this national endeavour. I have been, the Prime Minister has been, in the past few months to countless business – small, medium, some very large – where we have seen Australian innovation taking a leading role in Defence capability. We want to make sure that with the Defence Industry Policy Statement, with the Emerging Technologies Fund which is a part of that as well, with the Defence Industry Capability Centre, working that relationship between Defence and industry, we want to make sure that we absolutely take the best that we possibly can out of Australian innovation, out of Australian industry, and make sure that our Frigates and our Offshore Patrol Vessels, just to name two pieces of acquisition, are leading the way using that.

JOURNALIST:

Would you like to see some of that effort go into submarines?

MINISTER PAYNE:

Well, I’d like to see the best submarine we can possibly acquire and I’m not going to make any more comment about that.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, in your speech you spoke about how you’ve been dealing with globetrotting, briefing various Defence Ministers from foreign countries about Australia’s Defence White Paper. Do you have any travel plans in coming weeks to go to Japan, Germany or France?

MINISTER PAYNE:

No. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed that the Parliament’s sitting. Thanks everyone.

ENDS

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