| Neville,
Just when you think he’s finally come to his senses on something, it looks like he’s lying again.
On Sunday, as a spill motion threatened the Prime Minister’s job, a rare bit of good news was developing for Australian manufacturing.
After months of refusing to guarantee a “competitive tender” for Australia’s future submarines, Tony Abbott told South Australian Liberals that finally there would be a competitive tender to build our new fleet.
This was music to the ears of thousands of Australians fighting for the subs to be built on Australian soil, passionate about delivering the submarines Australia needs and saving manufacturing jobs in South Australia.
Unfortunately we found out that the only reason he reversed his position was to stop South Australian MPs and Senators from voting against him in a leadership spill.
That’s right, the Prime Minister used our new submarines as a bargaining chip to win him a couple of votes in a last minute attempt to sure up his leadership.
But it gets worse. Today the Liberal Government made an announcement on submarines that said nothing about a “tender”. In fact, they surprised everyone by announcing what they are calling a “competitive evaluation process”.
What does all this mean? It looks a lot like Tony Abbott just lied to keep his job. He lied to us all so he could become PM, now it looks like he lied to his own colleagues to stay PM.
He wasn’t thinking about the thousands of Australians who might lose their job if the subs were built overseas, he was only thinking about one job – his.
These submarines will be one of the most important national security assets Australia ever has and Tony Abbott has turned this procurement process into a shambles.
Can you join with Labor to tell Tony Abbott this isn’t good enough? Stand for a proper process and sign our petition today.
We can’t let the politics of saving the Prime Minister’s job be put ahead of the national security interests of this country. By sharing our petition, you’ll help us make that clear.
Thanks for your support,
Stephen Conroy
Shadow Minister for Defence |
