Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

First of all, I thank my colleagues the member for Curtin and the member for Lindsay for their questions and their strong passion for the Australian defence industry. I also thank Minister Hawke, who is no longer with us, for his contribution. There is no question that the Morrison government will continue to deliver on our unprecedented $270 billion investment in our defence capabilities. I'm not sure I'll be dealing with any questions from those opposite, because they couldn't even find enough content and enough material to actually fill the time. So I don't know that I'll be giving that much respect. Our spend is creating jobs and opportunities for businesses right across Australia, in the cities and in the regions.

Out of our 2024 structure plan, $3 billion has been committed to defence innovation, science and technology, including more than $1 billion in the Next Generation Technologies Fund and $800 million which is committed to the Defence Innovation Hub. In addition to this, as part of the $1 billion COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan, our government has provided a $32 million boost to the Defence Innovation Hub over the next two years. This will provide greater support to Australian businesses who are developing state-of-the-art technologies for our ADF, as we heard from the member for Curtin. The benefits of our government's investment in the defence industry, to contribute to defence innovation, are already visible, with the Defence Innovation Hub recording a record number of contracts in 2019-20, a 30 per cent increase on the previous year, with contracts valued at $105 million, with 83 per cent of those contracts awarded to small and medium-sized businesses, resulting in upwards of 600 new jobs.

In my home state of Western Australia, our government has invested close to $8 million in Defence Innovation Hub contracts with Western Australian businesses, including L3 Oceania, from Fremantle, who are developing an underwater acoustic sensor that could provide significant benefits to Navy, and Techventure Investments, from the seat of Pearce, who are developing a new type of ammunition for weapons carried by members of the Australian Defence Force. In addition to this, Defence has also invested upwards of $4 million, through the Next Generation Technologies Fund, in science and technology research activities in Western Australian universities and research networks, including Curtin University, UWA and Edith Cowan University.

In New South Wales our government continues to open new and exciting opportunities for the local tradies, with our commitment to invest over $10 billion over the coming decade into the redevelopment of defence facilities, including the redevelopment of the Garden Island Defence Precinct, the modernisation of the Headquarters Joint Operations Command at Bungendore, and the redevelopment and upgrade of some of our key bases, including HMAS Waterhen, HMAS Watson, HMAS Penguin and Holsworthy Barracks, amongst others.

In the regions, which I know are important to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, as they are to me—and I know they are very important to the member for Paterson as well—we will back those regional jobs with redevelopment of the regional sites. I should also include the member for Barker. He's pretty keen on regional jobs as well. Those regional sites that we'll be developing include HMAS Albatross, HMAS Creswell, Blamey Barracks Kapooka, Singleton barracks, RAAF Base Williamtown, which I know is of great importance and is in the heart of the member for Paterson's electorate, and Twofold Bay at Eden. Also, through our government's Local Industry Capability Plan initiative, we will ensure local suppliers, local contractors and tradies, have the opportunity to secure more of this work, creating more jobs for local communities in New South Wales. It is particularly important to recognise, during COVID, that the small tradies have had opportunities that they never got before. The big end of town, the big contractors, had no choice but to give the smaller tradie who lives around the corner, or the baker who lives up the road, an opportunity, and this has been an incredible boost for many, many parts of regional Australia.

I will just comment briefly on the contribution by those opposite. It occurs to me, and, I think, to everybody here, that there is this inconvenient truth for Labor—that the Morrison government has got this commitment of $270 billion in our defence capability, and we are delivering. Regardless of the rubbish that has come out of their mouths today, our government is delivering, and I'm very proud to be the defence industry minister who is delivering on that.

I will finish on: we have a significant order book. Those opposite—what was the expression, member for Barker?

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