Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this important motion, and I thank the member for Makin for raising this very important debate. For South Australians, defence industry jobs were meant to provide a vital lifeline following the loss of manufacturing in our state, especially the loss of General Motors Holden. Thousands of people worked not just at GMH but at manufacturing plants around the place that supported GMH. But this government's continued mismanagement of defence contracts has thrown the manufacturing industry into chaos and insecurity.

The Australian naval shipbuilding industry is facing a double threat. Firstly, we have the submarines. Most experts feel that the decision to switch to the nuclear option makes sense from a defence point of view, especially given that the French submarines contract was plagued by cost blowouts, changes in the commitment of local content, and delays. We on this side of the House have been supportive of the arrangements with the AUKUS deal, the Australia-UK-US deal, but that doesn't mean we can ignore this government's constant bungling of defence contracts; nor should it detract from the fact that it was a diplomatic debacle with the potential to impact Australia's honour, security and sovereignty. As a consequence of this mismanagement, around 350 Naval Group Australia jobs, the majority of which are in South Australia, will be lost. That's not to mention further potential job losses and uncertainty about the future in some of the supply chain companies.

To date, the Prime Minister has not provided any details or guarantees as to whether the submarines will be built in Adelaide. This creates continued uncertainty for the workers and associated industries. We must ensure that Australian industry is involved in the development of these submarines from the start in order to ensure that Australia has the capability to maintain the vessels into the future.

Last week, this was reiterated to me during a meeting I had with representatives from Engineers Australia. Their studies have shown that, to meet the demand for workers over the next 12 months, the defence industry will be required to grow at unprecedented levels. This can be challenging at the best of times, as we all know, given the unique nature of defence jobs, such as security clearances and a whole range of other things. While Australia possesses some skills in nuclear, we lack the skills required to work on the maintenance of nuclear propelled submarines. In fact, a 2016 Australian Department of Defence paper looking into Australia's requirement for submarines noted the government had ruled out nuclear since the time required to amass such support systems and skilled people would extend beyond the time frame for replacement of the Collins class fleet.

I understand it takes five to seven years of postgraduate experience before an engineer is considered competent for independent practice. This means we'd need to begin training our local skilled workforce immediately if they're required by 2032 and if we want to employ people here in this country. Given these challenges we must ask the question: even if the submarines are built locally, how many of the jobs will be local? It is not only the submarine project that is creating uncertainty for workers and industry. There are now reports that raise concerns that the future frigates program is facing multiple technical capability and safety issues. The future frigates, the second-largest procurement project in Australia's history, is based in Adelaide, and it's another example of mismanagement by this Morrison government. It's already running $15 billion over budget, it has faced delays over several years, and now we know there are serious concerns that the vessels may be slower, vulnerable to detection and with limited range.

The Morrison government must take control of our critical defence contracts, get them back on track and see these projects delivered to create local jobs and save current jobs. We on this side of the House have provided a bipartisan commitment to spend $270 billion on defence over the next 10 years. We have committed to the nuclear powered submarines, but we now want to see a clear commitment by this Morrison government and the state's Marshall government to growing our sovereign defence industry with a focus on creating local jobs.

See this speech in context