Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Port Adelaide referred to the air warfare destroyers and the ASC—quite rightly; it is a fantastic project. It is a project that the member for Port Adelaide well knows was actually committed to, signed off and funded by the last Liberal Howard government—a project worth over $8 million. It provides jobs around Australia. The member for Charlton mentioned the jobs in his electorate at BAE Systems in Williamstown. It is a nation-building project. These are the sorts of projects that are of real value to our country.

The defence projects which were funded by the last coalition government include the SEA 4000 phase 3, the Armidale patrol boats and the SEA 1444, and we in this House all know that it is important to understand the time frame required in the venture of shipbuilding: when it starts and when you have the people in the dockyard cutting the steel and integrating the systems. This does not happen overnight. This takes years. This takes money and contracts.

It also provides spillover effects to our economy, gaining knowledge, fostering innovation and improving skills, so I think we all agree on the importance of shipbuilding in our country. But let us return to the comments of the member for Port Adelaide about the 2009 white paper and the 12 submarines to be built in South Australia. We found no money dedicated, we found no contracts signed and here we are five years later. This is the problem: we have not got the projects in place. We have not got the money committed. There was inaction, and I think the members opposite would acknowledge this fact. There was inaction in their last Labor government that has led us to this situation today—the valley of death.

I was working on this with colleagues both state and federal last year getting together relevant industry groups; the Defence team centred in Adelaide, Defence SA, which is doing a wonderful job; and David Johnston, who was the shadow minister at the time. We worked together on the future submarines project. I spoke about this in an economics submission I provided. It is valuable not just to South Australia but to Australia and to jobs throughout our country, and we will be working hard to get the best benefit for Australia from that massive project.

I also want to touch on the government's plan in terms of what we have done in the defence sector. As is well known, we have committed to no further cuts to overall defence spending within a decade and to increase defence spending to two per cent of GDP. In Adelaide just last week we also made some announcements on the Triton unarmed aerial vehicles. That is a $100 million maintenance commitment in South Australia. There is also the $78 million work for BAE Systems for the Air Force's Wedgetail aircraft, which will provide jobs in Newcastle, Brisbane, Ipswich and Adelaide—jobs around Australia.

Once again, these nation-building projects are vital to our defence sector. We had Labor, which was all talk and no action, lacking commitment and delaying decisions. Let me give some facts. We have 100 projects being delayed. We had 40 projects being reduced and 11 projects being cancelled. The Labor opposition cannot sit here today and say, 'It's all their fault.' They have to look into history, into what happened in the last six years of Labor government. A lack of commitment and lack of projects left us in the tough position we have now with financial pressures, a budget deficit and less money to spend on projects that we would like.

One of the projects I would like to touch on briefly is the JP 2048, which involved amphibious watercraft replacement. This project was one that had every opportunity to be manufactured and supported in Australia, but these jobs went to Spain. You did not see the Labor Party saying, 'Let's have these jobs in Australia.' They went to Spain. The units were manufactured in Spain. That is what we have to appreciate. We have had the opportunity in the past to put projects into Australia, and they have gone elsewhere. That is why with the next generation of submarines it is so important to have as much of the work done around Australia—in Newcastle, in Williamstown and in Adelaide at ASC—as we can. I know from visits to my electorate by the Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, and the Prime Minister that they are always well received when they come to my electorate. The electorate knows the coalition is committed to defence and committed to reinvigorating the funding to defence and defence projects. That is why we on our side can feel proud of our history and proud of where we are going in the future.

See this speech in context