David Johnston, Defense

Abbott: David Johnston has my full confidence: Submarine Corp bagged to the world “they couldn’t build a canoe” Way to go to fold an industry Abbott

Defence minister David Johnston with France's President Francois Hollande (centre) inspecting a model of the Royal Australian Navy's Collins Class submarine.

Abbott under pressure to drop the defence minister, David Johnston, after the PM was forced to defend the Australian Submarine Company, while Jacqui Lambie expects a deal on defence pay. Follow it live…

Labor censure motion of David Johnston

The Labor motion in the senate is thus:

I move that the Senate censures the Minister for Defence (Senator Johnston) for:

1) Insulting the men and women of ASC by stating he “wouldn’t trust them to build a canoe”;

2) Undermining confidence in Australia’s defence capability;

3) Threatening the integrity of the Future Submarine Project, Australia’s largest defence procurement, by demonstrating bias and failing to conduct a competitive tender;

4) Breaking his promise made on 8 May 2013 to build 12 new submarines at ASC in South Australia; and

5) Cutting the real pay, Christmas and recreation leave for Australian Defence Force personnel.

Penny Wong says with his comments, Johnston has compromised the procurement process for future submarine contracts. Billions of dollars and thousands of jobs are involved.