Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Hindmarsh says the Prime Minister is well received in his electorate. We have not seen anything of him in Melbourne's west. My constituents have been waiting for action since the election of the Abbott government, but they have been left in limbo by the Abbott government's recent actions. Two-thousand five-hundred workers at the Toyota plant in Altona have been waiting for over a month for answers on how they are going to provide for their families after Toyota's closure in 2016. Hundreds of workers who supply Toyota with component parts are waiting anxiously as well to see if their government will introduce an innovation fund to bring new manufacturing firms to Melbourne's west so that their businesses will have enough work to continue operating.

But the community that is waiting with bated breath the most is the shipbuilding community—in particular, the over 1,000 workers at the BAE Systems shipyard in Williamstown. They are currently finishing construction on the Landing Helicopter Dock Ship project and the Air Warfare Destroyer project, the last of the major defence projects currently contracted to BAE Systems at Williamstown.

These workers are an essential source of technical skill for Australia's defence industry. With their expertise we are able to have a shipbuilding industry that can create the warships uniquely suited to Australian conditions. With their skills we can make sure that the warships that defend Australia are built in the shipyards they will be defending. These skills are too valuable to waste, particularly when considering Australia's long-term defence needs.

With the replacement of Australia's Armidale class patrol boats and submarines, and the frigate project needed in the near future, there is plenty of shipbuilding work required by the Australian Navy. There are around 40 ships planned for the coming decades. But none of these contracts have yet been signed and no commitments have been made by this government. So the shipyards are left waiting patiently as the clock ticks closer to the completion of their current contracts. As we near this completion date, the shipyards can wait patiently no longer.

Without these new defence contracts, the Williamstown shipyards will be forced to close. The much talked about 'valley of death' for the Williamstown shipyards has now arrived. Without a decision by the Abbott government in a matter of weeks, over 1,000 skilled workers will lose their jobs. This future is no longer a hypothetical; this is reality. It was flagged initially by BAE Systems spokesman Simon Latimer who said:

We need to make a decision about the long term future of our naval shipbuilding business by the second quarter of the year.

That is this year, and:

Work needs to be brought forward that will secure the medium and long term future of the yard.

This urgency was then reiterated by CEO, David Allott, at a recent speech to the Australian Defence Magazine conference, stating that unless further work is provided:

… we will have to start laying people off again at the end of this quarter and close the shipyard at the end of 2015.

Time is of the essence. BAE Systems could not be sending a clearer message. They need the Abbott government to sign contracts by the end of this month. They are not looking for government subsidies or support, just contracts for the work that the Australian government has already committed to publicly. They need work from some of the multitude of shipbuilding contracts that our Navy currently requires or they will be forced to close and lay off over 1,000 highly skilled workers. They can no longer wait patiently for these contracts while the Abbott government stalls and stonewalls. They need action now.

The Abbott government seems content, however, to lose our shipbuilding industry, as it has lost our car-manufacturing industry, by doing nothing at all. In the recent Senate estimates hearings, defence minister, David Johnson in the other place, gave no guarantees that defence contracts from the government would be forthcoming. Instead, he promised another defence white paper, to be delivered in no more than 12 months time—12 months, when workers are counting their futures in weeks and days! The arrogance of the Abbott government on this issue is staggering. Moreover, defence minister Johnson stated openly that the likelihood of funding these projects was questionable. He stated:

There is no money for these things. We have to rob Peter to pay Paul …

This is despite the Abbott government's promise to increase defence spending to two per cent of GDP in 10 years and their current acquisition of up to $3 billion of drones for maritime surveillance, without blinking an eyelid. It seems the shipyard workers are, indeed, 'waiting for Godot'; waiting for an Abbott government to deliver these workers that will never arrive.

The Abbott government needs to stop being an opposition party, wilfully ignoring what it cannot handle, and start being a government that stands up for the workers of Williamstown and Melbourne's west. As the CEO of BAE Systems said, 'Planning for success will require timely and courageous decisions, not only from industry but also from government.' Let us see some timeliness and courage from the Abbott government. It is time for this government to end the wait and to secure the future of over 1,000 jobs at the Williamstown shipyards. It is time for the former Leader of the Opposition to become a prime minister, and start showing some leadership on Australian jobs.

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