Senator PAYNE (New South Wales—Minister for Defence) (14:06): The reason that it is necessary to replace the RAN's supply vessels as quickly as possible is that those opposite did nothing. As you are aware, Australia has two supply ships, HMAS Success and HMAS Sirius. Both are rapidly approaching their end of life. Sirius is a converted commercial tanker and it has a number of operational compromises. It is relatively slow, and there are constraints on the amount of solid cargo it can transfer at sea. Success will next month see its 30th year of service. Because of its age it requires regular, costly maintenance to even keep it in service. So frequent are the maintenance requirements for the two vessels, there are times where both Sirius and Success are undergoing repairs at the same time and Australia relies on the Royal New Zealand Navy's HMNZS Endeavour. Senator Lines interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Senator Lines, you have asked the question. Senator PAYNE: This is what is known as a 'capability gap'. As these ships age it is likely the amount of time they spend out of action will increase. These problems have been known about for years, but Labor did not even begin the necessary planning in government to replace them. Because of the need to replace them as soon as possible to avoid what would be a critical capability gap, in June 2014 the coalition government began a limited tender with two overseas shipbuilders to choose a proven design. Navantia has been selected as the preferred tenderer and negotiations have commenced with them. Unlike those opposite, the Turnbull government is committed to ensuring our Navy is not left with a critical capability gap. You get a critical capability gap if you do nothing, and that is what Labor delivered us.