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

Firstly, can I say that I am very proud of all Australians who are working on our Defence capability projects, whether they live in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales or anywhere in Australia. There is also another category of Australians, who are living in France and working on our very, very important submarine project. I'm very proud of those young people. I had the opportunity to meet a couple of them only two weeks ago in my office. I'm very impressed with Naval Group, because they decided that we do need to train our own so that we have the know-how and the know-why. So it is very disrespectful to talk about our young people in this way, who are travelling from Adelaide to live in Cherbourg. I went there a few years ago and met a group of some 40 Australians, mainly from South Australia. They are key to the success of our project. I would caution those on the other side not to be disrespectful to young Australians who are carrying out a very, very important role of ours.

It is a great pleasure to be here this evening. I thank the members for Bonner and Ryan for their questions this evening. This government holds as sacrosanct our two most sacred duties as a government: to keep Australians safe and to protect our national interest. This means ensuring that Australians locally build and sustain the ships, the vehicles and the aircraft that the men and women of the ADF need to keep us safe. It means creating more jobs, backing Australian businesses and keeping the wheels of defence industry turning. As we know, this is more than just about the programs like the Hunter class frigates, the Boxers or the F-35s; this is also about ensuring our ADF personnel have the world-class infrastructure they need to train the way they need to fight.

Queensland is indeed at the core of the Morrison government's pledge to build stronger defence industry and defence capability over the next decade. Defence infrastructure in particular underpins this government's commitment and focus to support defence industry. Last week the Minister for Defence and I announced over $100 million worth of infrastructure spending in Brisbane. We are very proud of that. This will deliver world-class infrastructure to support the ADF's next-gen armoured logistics vehicles. The Brisbane works will be a major win for local SMEs, with local workforce participation expected to reach 85 per cent. Additional supporting infrastructure is being developed around the nation, in Perth and Hobart, for a total program value of $150 million.

In Queensland the Morrison government has created the environment that is allowing defence industry to flourish. In early May the Prime Minister and I announced $155 million worth of infrastructure upgrades at HMAS Cairns. The upgrades will provide work for up to 180 people on the project, with a target of some 10 per cent Indigenous employment through the program. This project also has a target of 80 per cent of subcontract packages being awarded to the local industry in the greater Cairns region. Given the issues that they're experiencing with tourism, I can assure you that those jobs are very welcome in the broader Cairns region.

These projects are part of the almost $870 million that the Morrison government is releasing for estate works to the marketplace to bolster defence industry recovery. This includes additional investment of $300 million in the national Estate Works Program. That includes significant work in regional Australia. These are great wins for the workers and for the businesses of Queensland which support Australia's defence capability. As a regional member, I know that there are many regional businesses included in those projects. I'm very proud of that.

As I've said a number of times, defence industry is more than just shipbuilders, engineers and cyberprofessionals. Our defence industry is also the local tradies who help deliver the infrastructure that the ADF needs and the community businesses that support the bases right around the country. The Morrison government is creating the environment that is allowing defence industry to flourish. Proudly, the $5.2 billion Boxer armoured vehicle program will create 330 new jobs at the state-of-the-art Rheinmetall Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence, which we call MILVEHCOE. The MILVEHCOE facility will also deliver the next generation of protected logistics vehicles for the ADF. These same vehicles will benefit from that $150 million infrastructure I mentioned previously.

I'm very proud of our $270 billion investment in our defence capability. We will never be lectured to by Labor—cutting the budget, cutting projects and not making sure there are enough jobs for Australians. We on this side know what we're doing. Things are under control, and we're very proud of it.

See this speech in context