More delays to Australian Defence Industry investment - Integrated Investment Program

[@BrendaNiemeyer-k4z]

They can't answer anything. What has the world come to when professionals can't even give me answers. It's sicken to watch. Do we have any hope, and David you got to be harder. Your too soft. Tell them to smart their act up. This is a nightmare.

[@gfenwick1]

Seriously? Its like asking andrew joyce why your luggage went missing. He'll have NFI. This is on a far more complex scale. Of course theyre taken on notice. they have to get an answer. run it through legals and then get approval to discuss in an un class environment which is being televised. and they have to flag it with the vendor in case there are commercial implications about confidential;ity or senxitivity. Jesus wept. This is just theatre. Either Fawcett is wilfully ignorant or he is clueless about the procedures. take yr pick

[@andyjames2082]

2 years, Jenny Mcallister, nothing has happened in 2 years!

[@robertthomas3777]

Love your work Mr Fawcett. I would consider these people are contemptuous of government by their arrogance, obfuscation, and ineptitude - and in turn we, the people who they’re supposed to serve. On another note, you should go in league with Rennick, Roberts, Babete, Antic, Jacinta, Pauline….etc, and form a super party to contest the unfit for purpose Lab/Lib inept duopoly. A party that would better serve this country and its people.

[@franktully3065]

VERY well said! Especially your comments on the obvious contempt these public servants have for those who pay their wages and the need for those still supporting democracy to unite.

[@gfenwick1]

what absolute tosh. as a long serving uniform he should be well aware of the decommissioning constraints around any foreign platform. If he doesn't then its a simple request to legals about the contract definition decommissioning constraints. Its not rocket science. blaming suits for doing their jobs under the letter of the law might win easy howls of anger and hand claps from the vociferous, but its far from the truth about how the contracts are constrained once the platforms are decommissioned. Theres a reason why a lot of gear gets buried - the legal work required to release from each nation providing components can be prohibitive this bloke either spent 20 years driving a desk or was never involed in platform selection at the purple level. in which case if its the latter then his staff have exposed him unecessarily when they should have done better homework on his behalf to be blunt this is just BS, because the other thiung the Senator knows is that the uniforms at estimates will take hit after hit after hot all day long rather than expose the govt to attack by the opposition. and they wont compromise the opposition for when they were in govt for the same reason. at the snr diarchy level the uniforms will take a flogging to protect either govt and opposition of the day. Its shooting ducks in a barrel. The Senator knows this unless he's been living under a rock or never reached star levels of responsibility. Geez, even those at LtCol and equiv know this until you sit in a Gate Review and see what crap snr sirs put up with from ministers and their staff you will never appreciate what the poor buggers have to grin and bear Its got phuque all to do with democracy.

[@Mizone505]

Howabout they stop talking and just get the bloody job done !!

[@anthonycarney971]

We need more of this..have they sent the choppers yet.?? David would make a great leader prime minister.. legend

[@jbh2761]

50 cups of coffee then a rubber stamp .. taking on notice is another 50 cups of coffee and then a rubber stamp …

[@forreal76]

Hon Jenny McAllister wasting committee time grandstanding her issues with last in government...not the time or plce...get on with the job or get a new job

[@colinmeehan791]

Watts always does the same,both oxygen thieves.

[@colinmeehan791]

That right,blame the previous Government for all these delays.Shut up woman and let the adults in the room roll out their excuses.

[@hgf334]

You must have your head in the sand. The previous government had ten years! They made a huge debacle of the defence of Australia.

[@gfenwick1]

I can list over half a dozen major capital projects that the adults stuffed up and literally cost Aust billions of dollars. And a fair swag were polluted by Ministerial discretion where the Minister who signed off using discretionary powers went against what the uniforms wanted. at least 3 were made on choices to safeguard vulnerable electoral seats. 3 have been in the poapers in the last 2 years when surprise surprise the unforms confirmed that the platforms werent fit for purpose This bloke should be asking for transparency so that the puiblic can know how the decisions were compromised, but thats not going to happen as it means showing that his own party was responsible for sxelecting the wrong platforms in the first place.... Lets push for a Royal Commission into political interference in the procurement process, guess what? there is no way that he will have the courage to do that as he knows full well that people from his party were responsible for these fiascos right at the beginning

[@petermcgraw7759]

Good ol Senator Jenny McAllister, gets out the usual Labor get out of jail card "we inherited from the previous Government".....what a joke!

[@gfenwick1]

how do you suggest that the incoming party (any party) deal with the contracts then? It might sound as weak as pi$$ as a defensive argument, but its absolutely true. I gather youve never worked in defence procurement or been on a tender evaluation team. breach the contracts and you make this a lawyers picnic

[@petermcgraw7759]

@gfenwick1No mate I know zip about Defence procurement or tender evaluation processes 🙂

[@gfenwick1]

@@petermcgraw7759 then you know full well that there is a degree of legitimacy in what she says. both major parties accept (as much as possible) the fact that they will honour any prev committments made by the prev govt as a form of maintaining procedural consistency - and everyone wants to avoid triggering breaches of contract new govts quote that line re the old govts decisions because its worked out to be in the national interest to not disrupt prev contracts where possible.. Both sides do this. Its the Greens who invariably dont understand the constraints The difficulty I have with this bloke beiug a white knight is that he either is willfully ignorant, has been driving a desk for over 20 years, has incompetent staff who havent done proper research before he goers into Estimates or he's being driven by politics to the detriment of actual and easily retrieved facts.. This is theatre and I suspect its deliberate. Ive done Ministerial Support, not Senators, but the principles around integrity still apply

[@richardlee6781]

Well done David.

[@andrewwarcup684]

When you can't answer blame the previous government.

[@cyborgdynamicsengineering7808]

David Fawcett is the Senator Australian Defence industry needs.

[@letmeexplain1816]

🙉Why don't these so called professionals, ever come prepared for questioning !! ?? How they even got their roles is just beyond me. They are all so basic, uninterested and unqualified !! 🙉 It's just so unbelievable, unbelievable !!🙉

[@steveboland3756]

It's a typical. Line coming from labour, blaming someone else again.

[@garry19681]

What if it is true?

[@gfenwick1]

FMD, incoming govts inherit the contract constraints developed or triggered by the prev govts... so its is literally true. Unless you think that all major contracts which take on average 12 years cradle to grave to initiate then commission to FOC should be suspended by a new govt every 4 years on a full election cycle, which then triggers other conbtractual breaches.... its pretty apparent that most ppl on here have NFI about how selection or contracts work. and its doubly clear that most oin here have NFI that the biggest selection phuque-ups in the last 20 years have come from the LNP. Perhaps you should ask why this platform was selected when thye uniforms wanted the platform that we will now eventually get and if the processes had not been polluted we could have saved literally billions across multiple platforms But hey its easier to trot out this theatre tha skate to close to the truth of how and why we picked these in the first place and he all the capability in the world to go to the ADF or the ANAO and ask under privilege to see the full evaluation, selection and contract definition documents of a lot of the platforms he's asking about. To expect Snr Uniforms to be able to answer specifics on any contract where there are well over 60 and closer to eighty underway at any time is just ridiculous. Ive worked first hand at the Ministerial support level during Sernate Estimates. This bloke should also full well know that there are constraints to what can be said in the clear at Estimates, that means they have to go to Legals for release. and because the legal internal teams have been decimated due to this idiotic desire to outsource nearky everything, then it also means that every question asked requiring on notice provisions will cost extra money as the outsourced lawyers and shops are making a killing on every transaction they do

[@alanrainey5022]

These people are called in to answer pertinent questions. They KNOW this yet turn up without answers. I don't watch this all the time, but the number of people without information or at least ninety percent of the question is over 90% from where I'm sitting. I "really" enjoy a person who can give an answer whether it is good news or bad. At least it is an answer and can be moved on from, not postponed for weeks, months or years.

[@buildmotosykletist1987]

Oh, they know the answers but they need time to to make up the excuses.

[@buildmotosykletist1987]

@@Yourbrightspot : Is that why we are selling so many weapons overseas.

[@buildmotosykletist1987]

@@Yourbrightspot : Go look at the long list of weapons we sell.

[@buildmotosykletist1987]

@@Yourbrightspot : Just in case you genuinely don't know about our weapons exports then just do that search. It's a multi-billion dollar industry.

[@OnPointAr]

The weirdos on display here....

[@seankennaway10]

Fawcett: Do any of you have a brain or know anything? "I'll have to take that on notice".

[@PeterDixon-o6n]

Those here in uniform useless Those asking questions useless The ministers useless. What a clown show

[@camf7522]

Please remember David is an former army officer.

[@gfenwick1]

@@camf7522 and yet I see no evidence that he has actually had a purple role in the procurement, selection or contract definition process as there has been no attempt to correct obvious incorrect assumptions made. Just because youre a uniform doesnt mean that youre automatically across your brief. and in here, it shows. Ive worked with Snr Sirs who were absolute dills. Rank doesnt mean that youre blessed with smarts

[@camf7522]

@@gfenwick1 Agree! That was my point. And former officers with limited operational experience and very specific experience (ie an army pilot and test pilot) that think they are experts are often not in the broader sense.

[@gfenwick1]

@@camf7522 Ive witnessed first hand a former snr sir try to get a political mate to accept an unsolicited offer for a (very very expensive) bit of kit and it turned out that he was about to go and work for the company. I note that this senator seems oblivious as to how some of these selections were made - if he did he wouldnt be so keen going on the warpath as it doesnt make his side of politics look too flash. Probity is a dirty word that was often ignored when his side was last on the job. Sen Fawcett ought to be careful in what he wishes for - unless he's really prepared to take a firehose to the whole process. These problems are not party specific, but the two major parties are in no position to be holier than thou about procurement c0ck ups

[@gregcooks-qr9wk]

The investment of Boomarangs and spears.

[@hgf334]

The fact is ten years of mismanagement under the previous government from dud helicopters to the submarine debacle and many more, too numerous to list, does make it true when the previous government had ample time to provide a robust and capable defence force. Instead we find ourselves with a defence force incapable of even being able to send a single warship to the gulf to protect a vital shipping lane.

[@gfenwick1]

98% of our commerce comes by sea - and we have territorial protective and management obligations over 1/9th of the worlds total grey, green and blue water - and a multitude of Fed govts across the divide have stuffed this up. The current shadow defmin doesnt understand the difference between ordered, commissioned, TIS, accepted hulls into service etc.... Not a peep about getting vessels built to COTS standards to save money, save on vessel insutance, save on crewing costs and built in countries that have a less than stellar ship building history etc.... and we expect sailors to put to sea on some of this rubbish.

[@Protectiontoisrael]

Wong displaying herself as a sarcastic bully. Implicated in the untimely death another female MP. Due to undue stress put upon that member (Kitching by Wong, Keneally and Gallagher). Kitching was targeted by “The Mean Girls” and Wong was one of 3 Labor members who took politics and themselves over the red line, just one example was Wong belittling Kitching by lashing out publicly, saying “If you had children, you might understand the impact of the climate crisis. Here’s the cover up that protected the Wong trio in the aftermath of the death of Kimberly Kitching. The former Labor leader Bill Shorten, a close friend of Kitching, first raised issues publicly around her preselection on the morning after her death. In radio and TV interviews, Shorten spoke of the “great stress” she was under, and said “politics and the machinations in the back rooms had its toll”. One specific allegation raised was that Wong had told Kitching “if you had children, you might understand why there is a climate emergency”. In the joint statement, Wong said she had apologised to Kitching for the remark, and said she believed that apology had been accepted.

[@philipwilkin9601]

Sounds like a hoocky pokey sound. You put you left in you put your left out you put your right in and you put your right out oooh oooh hoocky pokey

[@jocknarn3225]

surprise .. sur-bloody-prise! U watch what happens ppst US scaling back subs production .. let alone this beaucracy

[@Mizone505]

And stoo blaming the other side

[@marcusluciani1620]

Awwww snap!

[@peterjames174]

Labor .

[@Snowman666]

So who are we going to fight? spending money to defend from who? are they are who? minister of defence and the minister of trade are they are the same country we are going to defend from or importantly actually trading with hypocrisy is fanatical group

[@Nathan-ry3yu]

Idiotic question. Every country has to have a defence force. Even during peace time. If war broke out tomorrow and your defence force insist capable of defending because it is underarmed. Look at Ukraine. They relying on donations begging western nations for supplies to continue to defend themselves. Do you want Australia to may suffer the same fate. Or have a defence force that can defend if needed too Look how long it's taken for Australia to get nuclear powerd submarines. Look how long it's taken for Australia to change its warships to be fit for purpose. Do you want the ADF to run around in 60 year old outdated armord vehicles? Your not with reality are you mate? What you're basically saying is gaurd a bank with a musket becuse you don't believe theirs no need to modernise. While everyone eles is modernising and gaining more capabilities. After ww1 they never thought there be a ww2 either. Are you living on another planet or something? You don't relises how close Australia is coming to a war with China do you?

[@richardhughes9857]

isrsel out of palestine. problem solved

[@colinmeehan791]

Really? Showing your ignorance here.