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

I am very pleased today to speak about the most exciting news for regional WA. What I speak of is new defence jobs. On 11 April, together with the Department of Defence, I will host the Defence Industry Future Frigates and Offshore Patrol Vessels Roadshow in Geraldton. Following the downturn of the mining and resources sector in the last few years, the bush has adapted to the new normal, and the people in regional WA are hurting. Our government's naval shipbuilding program is music to the ears of people of all walks of life and ages, as it will open up hundreds of jobs over the next decade and beyond.

I have fought hard, since the release of the defence white paper early last year, to make sure that regional WA is in the mix for contracts and therefore defence industry jobs. I am determined that regional WA does not miss out, but we must get organised. I therefore encourage WA regional tradies—the fabricators, the electricians, the welders, the engineers, the designers and the boat builders—to attend this event to find out how they can diversify into the defence industries. Regional WA has the potential to play a massive part in the naval shipbuilding program, as the new contracts will require vital input from regional WA. There will also be an event on 12 April in Bunbury. I am about action; I am not about political slogans. I think the public are tired of that. That is why the member for Forrest, Nola Marino, and I, as WA regional Liberals, are delivering for people in rural, regional and remote Australia.