Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

At a time when unemployment is rising, the only jobs that the Prime Minister is fighting for are his own and that of his Liberal colleagues in this parliament. Having killed off Australia's car makers, the Abbott government followed on by trashing Australia's naval shipbuilders. Two weeks ago, in a desperate attempt to lift his political standing in South Australia, the Prime Minister came to South Australia with vague promises of a $89 billion continuous naval ship build. Days later, as the member for Perth has already pointed out, the work was promised to the Victorian shipbuilders. Yesterday, with the Canning by-election just weeks away, the Defence minister in this place effectively promised the same work to Western Australians.

For South Australian ship workers, the situation is grim. They have already entered the valley of death. The fact is that no new work will start until 2018 and about another thousand jobs are going to be lost in-between now and that time. No new work has been locked in. As Chris Burns from South Australia's Defence Teaming Centre has today highlighted that, from the government's own announcement, unless the submarines are built in South Australia, only around 20 per cent of the work is likely to go to South Australia—if it ever eventuates.

The Abbott government should stop playing politics with the lives of Australian workers, stop dithering with naval shipbuilding contracts and put the national interest first.

See this speech in context