Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer. Will the minister outline how the defence white paper and defence industry policy statement are supporting Australian small businesses to grow, create jobs and help with the transition of the economy?

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Durack for her question. She is a very strong and powerful advocate for the small businesses in her community, of which there are around 1,300. The member for Durack understands that the defence white paper that was released last week adds more than $30 billion of additional investment into our Australian defence forces over 10 years, bringing the total Defence Force spending to $447 billion over the decade. This is our action plan, and it contrasts to those opposite, who did not have a plan during those wasted Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years.

The reason this plan is so important is that there are around 3,000 small and medium enterprises in the defence industry, an industry that employs more than 25,000 people, around half of whom are employed by those small and medium enterprises. In the member for Durack's electorate, alone, she knows that there are around about 3,000 people who work in the defence industry. She knows that, with our plan, we will be seeing $26 billion worth of upgrades to Defence bases through the defence integrated investment program and, for her, that this means $2.4 billion will be spent upgrading the Royal Australian Air Force bases in Curtin and Learmonth, both of which are in her electorate. As I have said, there will be small to medium sized enterprises that will benefit from those upgraded works and from doing those works.

But it is not just those small businesses that will benefit. Many others will benefit from the investment in innovation that is at the heart of our investment in defence and security—$1.6 billion of our $30 billion investment has been earmarked for Australian industry, to make the most of this broader investment. That amount includes $730 million allocated for research into emerging technologies and $640 million into a new defence innovation hub. It will help those small to medium sized enterprises who are innovating and being agile in the way they engage—for example, companies like Quickstep, who produce high-tech high-quality custom metal components for a range of specialised defence and automotive equipment. This particular company is a small to medium sized enterprise that was highlighted in last year's Australian Defence Magazine for manufacturing composite wing flaps for the C130J Super Hercules. These are the sorts of businesses that will be encouraged by the investment that we are having in to our defence forces. These are the sorts of small businesses that will see the benefits of that particular investment. (Time expired)