Senator EDWARDS (South Australia) (15:08): What an intemperate pile of drivel. This debate is squarely aimed at trying to vilify a person who is scrambling to fill a void which you left. Senator Cameron comes in here and talks about the activities of this government when he, while sitting around on the fringes of the Labor reign of power, did nothing. Let us look at the record of those opposite. The then leader, Kevin Rudd said we will build these submarines at the ASC in about 2017. Now that is not far from here. So what did those opposite do? Did they sign a contract? Did they go out and look for procurement? No. In the 2010 campaign they told us, 'We promise to build the submarines at ASC in Adelaide.' What did they do? Did they go out and ask for contracts? No, they did nothing. Do you know what those opposite did in the lead-up to the 2013 election? Mr Shorten, in the lead-up to the 2013 election, did not promise anything. Those opposite did not even have a defence policy. They got sick of promising it. They did not mention the 'submarine' word. They just ran out of puff. Actually, they ran out of money. Do you know what was going on? At the heart of the issue was the competence of that government. Those opposite seem quite shrill over there. I see Senator Cameron has left the chamber. He needs to be reminded of why those opposite did not commit to submarine builds—they ran out of other people's money. They ran out of taxpayers' money. That is why they did not build them. There was $19.6 billion pulled out of that budget and those opposite sit there after 12 months of us being in power saying 'if you are going to build them, build them here'. How extraordinary. The people listening to this— Senator Lines: How extraordinary to want to build something in Australia. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Senator EDWARDS: Mr Acting Deputy President Marshall, you had better check with the attendants: I am not sure but I think there might be a seagull in the chamber somewhere. The $16 billion is what happened—the lowest levels of spending on defence since 1938. It was incompetence writ large. In 2012-13, Labor made the largest single cut to the defence budget since the end of the Korean conflict. Labor cut 10.5 per cent more from the budget. On Labor's watch, the Australian defence industry shed more than 10 per cent of its workforce because of budget cuts and deferrals. How was the record of those opposite on open tenders? Out of 77-odd, I think there were about 70 that never got put out for open tender. As those opposite know over there, I am an advocate for an open tender on this program. Do you know why? Because it is the single biggest defence infrastructure project in this nation's history. And who is doing it? We are. What did those opposite do? Zero, nothing. And how shrill they sound. They ran out of money. Those opposite do not even know how to manage money because they never have. All they have ever had to do is give their union dues and look after their numbers at their next preselection, and that is the only counting they have ever done. They have never had a bank manager. There are a couple of you over there on the other side, I must give you your due, that have run a business. But the only counting those opposite have ever done is vote to get elected to this place. That is what happens. We are getting about and doing what we have to do to bring this project back into order to address the essential security of this country. It is so important to our front-line defence. What did those opposite do with it? Nothing. We are doing something about it and we are doing it now.