Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the parliamentary secretary. Obviously one of the other privatisations recommended by the Commission of Audit is that of the ASC Corporation in Port Adelaide. It is a very important institution for South Australia. It built the Collins class submarine, which, despite the Howard government's blackguarding, is an excellent submarine and helps to protect our country and our national interest.

The Prime Minister promised before the election to make, construct and manufacture submarines in South Australia. There are subsequent comments by the previous Defence minister, who said he would not trust ASC to build a canoe. It is widely rumoured that the National Security Council has signed off on a Japanese manufacturer—I do not know which one—manufacturing what would be submarines to go into Australian service, in Japan, which would entail the building of an entire new facility in Japan. Today's The Australian Financial Review stated:

Japan is favoured to win the contract to build 12 new submarines for the navy, which would mean most of the jobs in the project would be offshore, at least in the construction phase. Some systems work and long-term maintenance would be carried out in Australia.

That same story talks about Austal and its chief executive, Mr Bellamy, who said it is a myth that building ships in Australia costs 40 per cent more than elsewhere. He referred to the effect of the dollar and said that with the dollar at 75 to 80 cents it is not more expensive building vessels in Australia. He is quoted as saying, in terms of the destroyers, that the delays and cost overruns were not the fault of the workforce, which are as skilled as any in the world.

Given the Prime Minister's promise, given the importance to the national interest of having a submarine that is at least capable of doing what the Collins class submarine is capable of doing, given that we have a very skilled workforce in South Australia, and there has been a significant investment by the South Australian government in facilities in anticipation of these projects, what can he tell us about the potential privatisation of ASC, including what would be an acceptable level of foreign ownership? What protections would be put in place for the existing workforce, including their enterprise-bargaining agreements, and what would be the conditions of the transmission of business in those circumstances?

What protections would there be for the Commonwealth, in terms of the technology? Who would own the technology that our Defence Force would be relying upon, with this particular project? What protections would be put in place, in terms of technology transfers and the other? Are we talking about a role for ship building, which would be simply maintenance and not manufacturing, or is the government committed to manufacturing in this country, particularly in regard to the submarines and ship building, generally?

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