Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise tonight to call upon the Prime Minister—to plead with the Prime Minister, in fact—not to break another promise: the promise that he made to build 12 new submarines in my home state of South Australia. If the Prime Minister breaks yet another election promise, we will see critical skills, innovation and research, along with thousands of South Australian jobs, sent overseas. This would be a devastating blow to our economy and to our domestic shipbuilding capability.

Before the election, the now Minister for Defence, Senator David Johnston, promised that submarines would be built in Adelaide. At a press conference in May last year, he said: 'We will deliver those submarines from right here at ASC in South Australia. The coalition today is committed to building 12 new submarines here in Adelaide.' But the Prime Minister and his government are now refusing to re-commit to their promise to build the submarines in Adelaide, and they are refusing to rule out buying submarines from overseas. When it was recently revealed that Japanese submarine experts visited ASC in a secret meeting in Adelaide, defence minister Senator David Johnston, in question time in the Senate, continued to refuse to recommit to his election promise to build 12 new submarines in South Australia.

South Australia's defence industry currently contributes $1.8 billion per annum and 27,000 jobs to our state's economy. If all planned projects go ahead, Defence is projected to contribute $2.5 billion and employ over 38,000 people by 2020. Madam Speaker, you can see just how important this is to our local economy. South Australia proudly currently holds about 25 per cent of the nation's defence projects, and the ASC has provided jobs to the South Australian economy for many years. The ASC completed the Collins class submarine program in 2005, and then became home to the Australian air warfare destroyers, the largest defence project on record, employing more than 1,500 skilled workers. There will be naysayers, who will complain about these projects, but these projects were delivered well, with highly skilled workers that contributed significantly. So far, the Collins class submarines have served our country very well.

Building new submarines in Adelaide will greatly increase Australia's defence capability—not only in terms of the submarines themselves but also by developing the skills, the research, and the people power that we need in South Australia. But it is an uncertain future, and this government is making it very concerning, on the ground, for so many businesses that were gearing up—because they had a bipartisan commitment. They were ready to gear up for this project, only now to be thrown into complete uncertainty. The government also seems to be ignoring the fact that the Future Submarine project told the Senate in 2011 that Japanese submarines do not meet Australia's strategic needs. This is not only an issue of jobs but also an issue of ensuring that we get the right submarines, that can do their job in defending Australia. Buying foreign-made submarines instead of building them here in South Australia will have a devastating impact on our maritime and shipbuilding industries. Quite frankly, I think that the government has shown a real short-sightedness when it comes to this quick fix of buying submarines off-the-shelf, and not thinking of our long-term strategic importance, as well as not thinking about the economic impact that will have.

The South Australian economy needs a government that will help to create jobs, not send them overseas. So far, we have seen nothing from this government that supports jobs in South Australia or, indeed, across the rest of Australia. In fact, we have seen them scare Holden and other car companies out of this country. They have ensured that the demise of Holden, Ford and Toyota was almost a fait accompli. Unfortunately, if the government continue this attitude of not actually having a policy to create jobs, then South Australia will be in trouble. My electorate of Kingston, which is home to a lot of small manufacturers, is already feeling and will continue to feel the brunt of this. This is an ill-informed decision that will have a devastating blow for South Australia. It is time to listen, not just to Labor but also to the South Australian Minister for Defence Industries and former Liberal, Martin Hamilton-Smith, who has called upon the government to defend South Australian jobs.