REPORTER: Just a yes or no, is it a tender process or not?
ANDREWS: I will use the words I choose to use. What we are doing is a competitive evaluation process. We have to evaluate this, we have to do it in a way which is methodical, cautious, that is, a process that goes forward into the future and obviously there has to be a competitive element to that.
REPORTER: But it's not a tender process?
ANDREWS: It's a competitive evaluation process.
REPORTER: Why did Sean Edwards say it was a tender process and he was mouthing the words of the PM?
ANDREWS: There were various reports in the media using all sorts of different words.
REPORTER: That's what he said.
ANDREWS: I am the Defence Minister. I am deciding the way in which we go forward with this and the way which we're going forward with this is a competitive evaluation process.
REPORTER: What have you actually promised today that is any different from what has been promised or not promised here before?
ANDREWS: Well, as the new Defence Minister I have spent the last few weeks looking at this in detail and decided the way in which we should go forward with this, particularly following my last visit here to Adelaide, was to ensure that there is an evaluation process and one which is competitive.
REPORTER: Just confirming what Sean Edwards said on Sunday about an open tender process is incorrect?
ANDREWS: I'm not a commentator. What I'm doing is saying to you, and to everybody who may be listening to me now, that the process that we are going to undertake is going to be a competitive evaluation process.
