I was at the opening of the ASC Shipyard and Rudd's speech seemed weird, like it had been cut or edited, it was so blatantly obvious that there should have been an announcement of a fourth destroyer, instead no announcement and a couple of months later Gillard is PM and Smith Defmin. Then comes the reorganisation at AWD giving Raytheon most of the top jobs while ASC and DMO are cut to the bone to save money, corners are cut to save money, projects are cut to save money and the schedule is slipped to save money.V, as I understand it, it wasn't until June last year (nine months ago), that the Government and Ex Def Min actually announced the tenders for the two replacement AOR's and that they would be build O/S.
So I don't think it's quiet accurate to say that a decision was imminent twelve months ago. Realistically (even with the change of Def Min), I wouldn't mind betting that an announcement on who the winner is probably won't be announced until around the time of the May 2015 Budget or the new DWP, whichever comes first.
And realistically too, I think the only chance we would have ever seen the AOR's being built here (and delivered on time), would have been if during the Rudd Government's first term, when they were splashing around all those Billions of GFC dollars, if they had actually invested a few lousy Billion (small change in the overall scheme of things during the GFC) in expanding Techport, hardstands, enlarge the ship lift, etc, etc.
If that had actually happened (upgrade/expand the construction facilities), then it could have been followed up by an order for two ships at the end of the Rudd years, or during the early Gillard years, or even made it easier for the current Government to make a decision about local construction, but I think it's all too late now.
The last think I'd like to see is a replication of what is happening in Canada where their two AOR's are out of service and it will probably at least 5 years (or more), before local construction can provide the replacements. As much as I want to see local industry get a bite of the cherry, I certainly don't want to see the RAN be the looser.
The interesting thing about the Korean proposal for the AORs is it is a rip off of the ASC proposal that was first put forward several years ago and then dusted off again in 2013 for the procurement that finally got under way before the last election. Then all of a sudden the procurement process stops, a tender, excluding Australian industry involvement, is announced in its place and then nothing, again.
Gut feeling Gillard and her cronies derailed plans to order ships, fourth AWD, AORs, OCVs, LCH(R)s, new submarines, because being predominantly left wing Labour Lawyers, they didn't really give a stuff about industry, let alone defence. Smith seemed to want to lease ships from overseas in preference to actually making a concrete decision on new ships, it was quite clear he had no interest in the portfolio what so ever and was a waste of space. Then we had Johnston, who loved being wined and dined by lobbyists as well as using RAAF VIP aircraft as taxi's for his fellow (Liberal) sand gropers and now we have Kevin Andrews, a political dinosaur who also has little if any interest in defence but has taken the job to help sure up support for the PM. The alternative, Conroy, God help us, another left winger who has no time for the people in uniform, or those in industry, he's there to politicise the portfolio and attack the government.
Now the value of the dollar is dropping and the mining boom is definitely over we can no longer afford to buy the gear we could have several years ago and no longer have the money to fix local industry. I greatly fear for the future as we wasted billions when we had money now money is short and there are many capabilities that need investment that will miss out.