Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Bendigo has a proud defence manufacturing history. Hopefully, we'll also have a proud manufacturing future if we can get the policy settings right at the federal government level. Bendigo is home to Thales, which, prior to becoming Thales, was an Australian defence industry facility. We manufacture the Bushmaster and the Hawkei at the Bendigo Thales facility. It took this government many years to finally sign the new Hawkei contract, but it eventually did. The $1.3 billion contract with Thales will produce 1,100 Hawkei vehicles in Bendigo as well as a thousand companion trailers.

What is important about this particular defence contract is that, while it secures 170 direct jobs in the Bendigo region at the facility, it is also expected to create an extra 60-plus jobs in the supply chain. One of the true credits to Thales is the way in which they've worked with the Victorian and Australian supply chain industry to supply into the Hawkei. On an inspection of the Hawkei, the workers will proudly tell you where the components have come from—where the seats, the seatbelts and the dashboards have come from, even where the mufflers have come from: specially designed up the road in Long Gully. That contract with a small supplier in Long Gully, for 1,100 vehicles, is a base contract for that business and secures their workforce now and into the future.

Whilst Bendigo is very proud of what we've achieved with the Hawkei and the Bushmaster, we are equally proud of ADA, who supply Defence uniforms to the government. These are the combat uniforms. You can imagine the disappointment of the predominantly female workforce in Bendigo that their contract for the dress uniforms wasn't held as an equal priority with the Hawkei contract under this government. This government, for cost reasons, went value for money and offshored these jobs. Rather than producing the uniforms in Bendigo, creating more jobs in the supply chain, creating more jobs at the Bendigo ADA manufacturing facility, the government offshored these jobs. So people in Bendigo, like people in many regional towns in Victoria, are incredibly sceptical when it comes to this government and motions like the one we have before us. There is a lot of rhetoric but very little in the way of delivery on the ground when it comes to all of Defence manufacturing. The government have their pet projects and ignore others.

That brings me to highlight how the government have failed to ensure, when they talk about value for money for these projects, the value of having the supply chain jobs. Rightly, many in Thales and the Department of Defence were very concerned about the recent release of the Auditor-General's report into the Hawkei vehicle. The reason I highlight this is that it goes to pretty much the heart of the problem with the government. They say that they support small business and Defence government contracts yet fail to put that in their procurement procedures. So, when the Auditor-General did their job and reviewed the Hawkei and the procurement process and whether it achieved value for money, the Auditor-General did not assess to see whether having local manufacturing jobs, local supply chain jobs, was in fact good value for money. As a result, a scathing report was handed down criticising the Hawkei project. It's just disappointing that the government can't get the policy settings right. It's disappointing that this project, which secured jobs in Bendigo, in the region, in the manufacturing supply chain, got such a black mark against it because the government didn't audit for that. The government doesn't really appreciate that it is good value in our regional communities to have people employed in our Defence manufacturing supply chain. If the government were really serious about small business and Defence procurement contracts, then they would say that having local jobs, local industry, is value for money.

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