Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Abbott government's recent, vague announcement in Adelaide that work on the offshore patrol vessels and the Future Frigate Program would be brought forward to 2018 and 2020 respectively and would be initially centred around Adelaide appears to be yet another political stunt. Firstly, 2018 is still three years away and well after the next election. Secondly, it seems that the jobs of naval shipbuilders at shipyards in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia are being sacrificed to temporarily shore up the political stocks of federal South Australian MPs and senators. Thirdly, the replacement submarine contract which South Australians were promised before the 2013 election remains in limbo.

Even if work starts in 2018, it means at least a five-year lag between the Abbott government being elected and construction commencing. Australian shipyards need work now. Naval shipbuilders are already in the valley of death, with workers being laid off around the country and skills being lost. Blaming the previous government does not justify the Abbott government's own procrastination and mishandling of Australia's naval fleet building. The Abbott government should stop hiding behind a naval white paper, which it appeared to ignore with the frigates announcement recently, should build the supply vessels in Australia rather than send them offshore, as it proposes to do, and should keep its promise to build the submarines here in Australia—in particular, in Adelaide.