Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

Since coming into Government, we have received detailed briefings from our departments and key stakeholders associated with the Air Warfare Destroyer programme.

There are clearly issues associated with this important programme.

This is part of the legacy of unresolved issues which we have inherited from Labor, which come on top of massive cuts to the Defence budget by the previous Government.

Together with the Minister for Defence we are working to resolve these issues.

We are committed to establishing an independent review into the Air Warfare Destroyer programme.

We will provide further details of this review when we finalise the terms of reference in early 2014.

The Government is committed to working collaboratively and constructively with all stakeholders to ensure we realise both the national security benefits and the long term benefits of the programme for the Australian shipbuilding industry in a cost-effective and efficient way.