Defence Minister Richard Marles says the Labor government has inherited a “defence procurement mess”.
“A complete mess,” Mr Marles said during a media conference on Monday.
“Under the Coalition government, we saw 28 different projects running (an) accumulated total of 97 years over time.
“What we had with the former government was a government that was totally focused on press releases and announcements on hoopla and vaudeville, but when it came to the active management of defence procurement, they were one of the worst governments in our nation’s history.”