Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The complex set of security and strategic challenges that the member for Herbert refers to are well outlined in the Defence Strategic Review, which the Albanese government commissioned early in its term and which was released publicly in April last year. Conveniently, the same Minister for Defence who commissioned the review is also overseeing its implementation. The coalition, of course, had altogether too many ministers for defence and, for that reason and others, were unable to provide proper guidance to the defence department or to the defence industry for many years. Was Scott Morrison also the Minister for Defence? I can't actually remember, given there were 23 different members in the role.

We expect the coalition to be pretty hopeless across a wide range of portfolio areas. We're busy fixing immigration, the NDIS, aged care, education and others, but, really, we would prefer if they weren't hopeless on defence. One recommendation of the Defence Strategic Review—the member will find it on page 81—is that Australia should rapidly establish a domestic guided weapons and explosive ordnance manufacturing capability. 'Rapidly establish' are hard words. The coalition would know given that they let 28 major defence contracts run, cumulatively, 97 years late. So 'rapidly' has meaning in this space.

On 8 May 2023, Air Marshal Leon Phillips OAM was appointed as the inaugural Chief of Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance in order to initiate the GWEO Enterprise. To date, they have, among other actions, accelerated the acquisition of guided weapons, agreed with the US to deep cooperation on Australia's GWEO Enterprise by collaborating on a flexible guided weapons production capability in Australia by 2025 and invested $220 million into munitions factories at Mulwala and Benalla in Victoria.

Following on from the DSR, the Defence Industry Development Strategy sets out a plan for the future of our defence industry and the creation of a far more robust sovereign and economically significant defence industry in Australia. It describes the rationale for greater sovereign manufacturing and treats procurement reform and, importantly, workforce challenges and solutions. Commentators have noted that the DIDS also devotes a whole chapter to communication, and it's good to see this acknowledged as an issue within defence and an area where cultural change and improvement can occur.

In technology, the government has committed at least $3.6 billion over the coming decade for the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator to ensure that Australia has speedy access to proven defence related technologies and to keep us at the cutting edge. The DSR also stressed the importance of naval shipbuilding as a sovereign industrial capability. It recommended a commitment to continuous naval shipbuilding. The DIDS supported this, and in November we were very pleased to see in WA that Minister Conroy announced continuous naval shipbuilding at Henderson.

Upon making that announcement, the minister stressed that continuous shipbuilding would allow companies to make investments and would underpin what is already a skilled workforce to stay in the industry and for that workforce to grow. The minister described it as a 'seismic' announcement, and I know it was appreciated by the WA Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon. Paul Papalia, and by my colleague the member for Fremantle, who has advocated on this for his community for many years. It will be appreciated even more by the workers and families involved and by the companies that can rely on a steady stream of work there to underpin that investment. Continuity allows for much more than just output and employment. It allows for planning and onshore maintenance and for the building of a skills base that can be relied upon in difficult times. Continuity is essential also essential for the developing business and investor confidence. This motion in fact speaks of confidence.

Confidence is an interesting thing. It's hard to have confidence in a coalition that pops up a different face into defence portfolios whenever the wind changes. Let me tell you what I know about business and investor confidence: nothing shakes confidence so badly as a sudden, abrupt and unexpected change to a contract worth hundreds of billions of dollars. When Scott Morrison suddenly pulled the rug out from under the French, it meant that the companies in Australia that had been busily investing in their own capacity to get ready for that deal and the part that they could play in it faced huge, real losses. I've spoken to people in the defence industry about this in my electorate and outside of it. So, 'I don't think; I know.'

Confidence is supported by clear goals which the Defence Strategic Review, the DIDS and the recent National Defence Strategy provide. This motion calls upon the government to urgently implement a policy framework and industry support to build our industrial self-reliance. Well, that's all happening, and it's good to have the member onboard.

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