James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity this motion affords me to talk about a future made in Australia and particularly the opportunities in my home state of South Australia, in the city of Adelaide. Last week we had a very important milestone announcement around confirmation of detail around the next phase of construction of the AUKUS submarines in South Australia. BAE and the Australian Submarine Corporation will be partners on this fantastic opportunity for the Australian economy—very proudly, a program that will be centred in our home city of Adelaide. We have a great heritage and pride in our shipbuilding prowess and in submarine construction, and of course the ASC was established for the purposes of the Collins class program. That decision was taken in the 1980s, with construction through the nineties, and the ongoing sustainment of the Collins class program has occurred in Adelaide—the full-cycle docking. We look forward to the life-of-type extension program to ensure that a capability gap is not left between the new submarine opportunities that AUKUS provides and the importance of upgrading the Collins class submarines so that the Royal Australian Navy has the highest capability that they need in order to do the excellent work they do in securing our nation and our national interest. The next generation of submarine construction is truly exciting. To hear this confirmation is welcome news, and I welcome it as a member from the city of Adelaide.

But unfortunately last week, at the same time, there was a very concerning development in the Senate, where the Greens political party moved a motion calling on the government to scrap the AUKUS program. Now, they've already called for the Hunter program to be scrapped as well. So the position of the Greens party is that the naval shipbuilding industry in Adelaide should be shut down. That would be the greatest economic cataclysm to befall my home state of South Australia in my lifetime, and I've been there for the car industry; I've been there for State Bank. But to suggest that an industry that employs more than 10,000 people should be shut down—that would have an unbelievable impact on the South Australian economy. Why they don't want those jobs is for them to explain. But on this motion, where we're talking about a future made in Australia, it's important that we call out any and all policy positions that are about the opposite of that.

I'm proud of the Morrison government's pioneering work in achieving the milestone of securing the principle of AUKUS. We appreciate that the then opposition, now the government, welcomed the opportunity of AUKUS at the time, and we stand ready to be utterly bipartisan when it comes to making sure that this vitally important opportunity for the national security of our nation is fully achieved and fully realised. It will be absolutely transformative to have nuclear propulsion in a submarine fleet for a nation like Australia, covering an entire continent with very long travel times, to project the maximum amount of undetectable force as far from our coastline as possible. What an unbelievable capability for the Royal Australian Navy. Indeed, the opportunity that that provides in taking such a dramatic further step in our nuclear industry is also significant and spectacular when it comes to AUKUS—the full cycle of the nuclear industry in Australia, including having nuclear reactors operating on Royal Australian Navy vessels. We in the coalition see that as a good opportunity to look at further opportunities for the nuclear industry, as we'll discuss more in this place.

That is a future made in Australia. For those political participants that don't want that future and those jobs, that's up to them. But I know, in my home city of Adelaide—and other members in the chamber right now that represent other electorates in Adelaide and South Australia know well—that in South Australia we're excited about this opportunity. It will underpin the industrial capability of our entire economy into the future. It will provide for enormous spin-off opportunities for other advanced manufacturing industries. That's the kind of future made in Australia that I want to see, that the government and the opposition want to see but that the Greens don't want to see for the people of South Australia.

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