Bipartisan push: ‘Time to bin troubled chopper’

Two former soldiers-turned-politicians are leading a bipartisan push to scrap Defence’s trouble-plagued workhorse helicopter, the MRH-90 Taipan, in favour of US-made Black Hawks.

An Australian Army MRH-90 Taipan helicopter. Picture: News Corp

Two former soldiers-turned-politicians are leading a bipartisan push to scrap Defence’s trouble-plagued workhorse helicopter, the MRH-90 Taipan, in favour of US-made Black Hawks.

Defence’s 47 MRH-90s were not used in the recent Exercise Talisman Sabre – the nation’s biggest multinational war games – after being grounded in June.

Liberal MP Phillip Thompson, an Afghanistan war veteran and the Member for Herbert in Queensland, said it was time to “bin” the European helicopters for the more reliable US machines”. “You put five out on the tarmac and only two can take off. It happens all the time,” Mr Thompson said. “We’re polishing a turd here.”

Labor’s Member for Solomon Luke Gosling, a former commando who served in East Timor, said Defence Minister Peter Dutton needed to intervene after the helicopters were grounded for a third time in as many years.

Mr Gosling said the government needed to “fix this mess” by dumping the much-maligned aircraft, ordered by the Howard government against the wishes of Defence. “The Defence Minister has all the information he needs to make a decision about these helicopters and he must not delay,” he said.

The MRH-90s have so far cost taxpayers $3.7bn, with $11.3bn needed to keep them flying until 2037.

The helicopters are being progressively returned to service after they were banned from flying over problems with the aircraft’s maintenance software.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton was flown in one of the ADF’s heavier CH-47 Chinooks during the exercise, after earlier ordering four more of the tried-and-tested aircraft.