Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, Vice-President of the Executive Council, Minister for Arts and Attorney-General) (14:05): Senator Carr, why did the Labor government commence no ships, warships, at any Australian shipyard in the entire six years you were in power? Not one, Senator Carr. Not one ship, warship, commenced in the six years when you were in power—not one. Meanwhile, nothing was done to progress the Australian submarine—not a thing. That fell into abeyance while Defence expenditure fell to the lowest level— The PRESIDENT: Pause the clock. Senator BRANDIS: as a proportion of GDP— The PRESIDENT: Order, Minister! Senator BRANDIS: since 1938— The PRESIDENT: Order, Minister! Senator Moore: Mr President, I rise on a point of order on direct relevance to the question asked by Senator Carr, which was: when will the minister sit down with the shipbuilders and bring work forward? That was the quite neat question. The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Moore. I remind the minister of the question. He has 24 seconds remaining in which to answer. Senator BRANDIS: Thank you for reminding me, Mr President, because that is precisely what we have done—and I will tell you when we began, Senator Carr. We began with the contractors for the air warfare destroyer project, which fell behind because of cost overruns and construction delays during the six years of the Labor government, when the shipbuilding industry went into the 'valley of death'. (Time expired)