Labor gives broad support to defence plan

Labor defence spokesman Stephen Conroy says the opposition broadly supports the new road map for Australia's defence force and industry.

Labor says the test of the defence blueprint will be whether 12 new submarines will be built locally (AAP)

The federal opposition says the government has finally acknowledged Labor was correct in deciding Australia needed 12 new submarines.

But it disputes Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's claim that defence spending under Labor reached the lowest percentage of gross domestic product since the eve of World War II.

Responding to release of the 2016 Defence white paper, opposition defence spokesman Stephen Conroy said Labor was broadly supportive of the plan, its strong support of the US alliance and the government's commitment to lifting defence spending to two per cent of GDP.

Senator Conroy said one of the reasons the government could lift spending, as a proportion of GDP, early was because it had actually shrunk the economy.

He noted defence spending dipped to 1.62 per cent of GDP in 2002-03 under prime minister John Howard.

Assistant defence spokesman David Feeney said Australia's submarine enterprise was of enormous strategic importance.

"We will continue to fight for those submarines to be built right here in Australia," he said.

Mr Feeney said the three contenders for the new submarines had made their bids on the basis there would be eight submarines, not 12.

"The fact that the number is 12 strengthens the case for a local build and it strengthens the case for there now to be a critical mass for a continuous build of submarines in this country," he said.