National Defence committee  Absolutely. The government's sacred icon is this idea of off-the-shelf military procurement, which I don't think is really deliverable in terms of Australian requirements. With the navy in a situation of wanting a French design, an American weapons system, and Australian radar,

National Defence committee  Absolutely. I think the big challenge is getting to each other's locations. Of course, one hears that all the time, but it seems to me that both our armed forces are increasingly using simulators, which ought to deal with a significant amount of that. Ultimately, the challenge

National Defence committee  That is correct, yes.

National Defence committee  Sorry, can I perhaps slightly correct the record? There are two navy vessels, which are basically fleet oilers, being built in Korea. We have a requirement for an icebreaker, which will not be part of the navy; it will be run by our Antarctic establishment. I'm not able to tell y

National Defence committee  It resonates with a significant part of the public. I would explain that by saying that if you look at opinion polls, the support for our alliance relationship with the United States routinely gets 80% support.

National Defence committee  Maintaining defence spending at 2% of gross national product, which is roughly double yours, doesn't have quite that high a level of support, but it has a high level of support in that 60% of Australians would say that it was about right, or that indeed we should spend more.

National Defence committee  I'd suggest two strategies, which government is looking at to one degree or another. The first is deciding sensibly what threshold of dollar value a government should take to cabinet. In our case it's been very low. It's been $200 million. If you look at defence expenditure, th

National Defence committee  Yes, they are. They've gone to Korea, and they're based on civilian designs. They're soon to be delivered.

National Defence committee  I think we're certainly concerned about Russian behaviour generally, the somewhat destabilizing way Russia chooses to act internationally, and we're very worried about the prospects for Asian security if Russia becomes more involved. Last October the Russians and the Chinese hel

National Defence committee  We don't have a coast guard in Australia.

National Defence committee  We have none at all. At least twice in the last 20 years, it's been considered, but given our scale, the decision has always been that we're better off to maintain one highly capable maritime enforcement capability in the navy. Personally, that's a decision I'm very comfortable

National Defence committee  My sense of it, Mr. Gerretsen, is that there is a more ingrained sense of threat in terms of Australian community perceptions. It was once explained by a former Australian foreign minister when he said that Australia feels “the hot breath” of Asia on its neck. I think that kind o

National Defence committee  No. Each unhappy procurement program is unhappy in its own unique way. In the case of the air warfare destroyer, for example, which has suffered some significant delays, it came down to a perennial problem. We're always producing the first of class, and then we're never buildin

National Defence committee  Yes. The air warfare destroyer, based on the Spanish F100 design, was built in modules in South Australia and in Williamstown, which is in Victoria near Melbourne. I think we might even have had some modules constructed in a small yard in Queensland.

National Defence committee  It was more successful as the build went on. They were finally assembled in Adelaide. It's quite technically possible to do that with a significant amount of work. The more work you put into a module before it gets into a ship, the faster and cheaper it is. Modular construction