Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have the pleasure to ask a question of the Minister for Defence Industry, Mr Pyne. The Australian naval shipbuilding program is one of the most ambitious in the world, and the eyes of the world are watching Australia in this endeavour to see if it is indeed possible to modernise the Australian Navy's defence and border protection capability and to do it at home. Because we are bringing these vessels home by ensuring that they are built here, repaired here and designed here, we can ensure not only that the maximum amount of taxpayer money is spent here in Australia but also that we improve the operational capability of those vessels.

Because of the nature of Australia's position in the world geopolitically, if we really want to have a region-leading Navy, we need to have the capability to maintain and sustain those vessels here. If those vessels are required to be towed to the other side of the world—to a shipyard in France, Germany or indeed Spain—when they break down, those vessels' operational effectiveness is, of course, greatly reduced. To ensure that we are giving our servicemen and servicewomen the best chance to properly defend our shores, it is imperative that these vessels be built and maintained here at home.

But not only that; it is imperative that some of our naval shipbuilding be done in Western Australia, because Western Australia is hurting. We have suffered the slings and arrows of a boom and bust economy before, and my upbringing in the goldmining town of Kalgoorlie has prepared me well for life in the west and also life in politics. When the worm turns and the boom fades, there is a real human cost. We are left with mortgages worth far more than the worth of the property. We are left with closures of businesses and the loss of jobs, and the pain is real. The situation, of course, is not made any easier by the percentage of GST share that we receive, with most of it flowing to prop up other economies within our country.

That is why the naval shipbuilding program is so vitally important to people in Western Australia. We need to tell young Western Australians that this government has not forgotten them and has not sold them out and ruined their ability to go and get a decent job, have a career, earn a decent living and support themselves. The nature of the naval shipbuilding industry means that this is a sector that a young person can spend their entire career in. The lives of these contracts for the naval shipbuilding program are expected to be some 40-odd years, meaning the work will be there when it is needed. It will encourage those young people to go out and get the training that they need to be able to take advantage of a proper career in the naval shipbuilding of our country.

The skills required in this industry are very adaptable to the skills that many young people in Western Australia have acquired through the mining industry, so there is the potential for some retraining and some retooling for those hit by the mining downturn to turn their hand to naval shipbuilding. That is something that I think is very exciting and something that we should be talking more about in this place. If we can retool and retrain that considerable workforce in Western Australia, we have a real shot at establishing a robust sector that is not beholden to the boom and bust of the mining industry. We know that we can take those skills offshore as well. My question to the minister is: what is the government doing to support naval shipbuilding in Western Australia and what benefits will this bring to the economy of Western Australia?

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