Australia's defence minister, David Johnston, is in hot water after barring local shipbuilders from bidding for the contracts to construct two new replenishment vessels for the navy. The contestants for the contracts will be limited to Spain's Navantia and South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. Johnston said the low productivity of domestic shipbuilders in the troubled program to build three air-warfare destroyers meant the government had to look elsewhere to get value for money. “No responsible government could consider providing further work to an industry that is performing so poorly,” he said.
