Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to call on the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Industry to explain why another defence contract has gone overseas. A few weeks ago we heard that a $170 million defence equipment contract would go to Bendigo based ADA. But we have since learned that this contract that ADA has been awarded is only worth $60 million and all the products will be manufactured in Vietnam, so not one new job will be created in Australia as a result of this contract.

On 28 August, defence minister David Johnston announced that the department would be allocating $170 million to upgrade soldiers' kits, saying that the first Land 125 Phase 3B contract had been awarded to Bendigo based Australian Defence Apparel. On this day, there was joy. There was celebration and excitement in my electorate that new jobs could be created. The hard work of the facility, which has a proud history of manufacturing products for our defence services, had been recognised and it had been awarded another new contract.

This is a missed opportunity by this government to create more jobs in regional Australia. Instead, this government has created more jobs for a subcontractor in Vietnam. People have the right to be disappointed, and they are disappointed. I am extremely disappointed that the government has chosen a cheaper manufacturer overseas as opposed to a high-quality Australian manufacturer. Most Australians agree that taxpayers' dollars should be spent on defence materials manufactured in Australia, supporting local businesses and securing local jobs—because it is not just the jobs at the defence facility that you support; it is the supply chain as well. It is the people who support the work that goes on.

My community of Bendigo is now extremely nervous about what this decision could mean when it comes to the Hawkei contract, a contract that we expect to be announced soon. All we have seen so far from this government, in every decision that it has made in relation to defence manufacturing since it came into power, is this work going overseas, putting local Australian jobs at risk. In this particular case, it is a missed opportunity to create jobs in regional Australia. So I call on the Minister for Defence to explain why this important contract has gone overseas. I call on the Minister for Industry to explain why the government misled the people of Bendigo. Again, it is a missed opportunity for us to be able to create more local jobs.