Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein for his question. He would be pleased to know, as would all the Victorians in the chamber, that today the government signed a contract with Thales Australia to create OneSKY. OneSKY is the first civilian and military air traffic control system in the world. It's an incredibly ambitious project. It's an example of Australian know-how, technology and sophistication, leading the world in an area which could be incredibly valuable to the Australian economy.

The contract that we've signed today with Thales Australia for $1.2 billion secures 450 jobs in Melbourne and 200 more across the supply chain—businesses like Nova in the member for Brisbane's electorate and Frequentis Australasia in the member for Lilley's electorate. In businesses like Nielsen, DESA and Stowe, there are 160 jobs spread across electorates in Gippsland, Newcastle, Wakefield, Western Sydney and Blair. The OneSKY team run by Thales Australia has already created over a billion dollars worth of exports out of this particular part of the economy over the last few years, growing from 30 to 450 Australians. Their software developers, their engineers and their project managers have been at the forefront of the cutting edge of this kind of technology. It's a really good example of the Turnbull government using the $200 billion heft of the biggest military capability build-up in our nation's history to drive not just capability but jobs, investment and growth in the economy.

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