Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Will the minister outline to the House how the government's investment in defence industry will generate thousands of jobs for hardworking Australians, create a stronger economy and ensure our national security? How will Victoria benefit from the largest military build-up in our peacetime history?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question. I can tell her that Victoria is one of the most significant states in the nation in terms of defence industry. It has one of the largest slices of defence business in the country—300 businesses employing 7,000 Australians. Of course the government's $200 billion expansion of our military capability over the next 10 years will add to the investments that those business make, creating jobs for Victorians, and increase infrastructure spending in Victoria, so driving the Victorian economy. There are businesses like Chemring in the member for Corangamite's electorate, down at Lara, which makes flares for the Hornet and for the Super Hornet, and it has just won a contract to provide flares for the Joint Strike Fighter—a $250 million contract leading to the employment of 55 Victorians. Ninety per cent of those flares will be exported. There is Marand Precision Engineering in the south-east of Melbourne, not far from the member for Chisholm's electorate. They recently estimated that their value from the Joint Strike Fighter program will be a billion dollars—a billion dollars to that business, supporting 150 jobs. These decisions are being made because of the investments of this government in defence and defence industry. Thales Australia, in Bendigo—a business I visited not long ago—is building 1,100 Hawkei protected vehicles under a contract worth $1.3 billion, providing 170 jobs. The Turnbull government, in the Defence white paper, committed to $3.1 billion in the defence estate in Victoria alone. We will be upgrading the bases in Victoria—bases like the one at East Sale, in the electorate of the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the member for Gippsland.

All of this investment is driving capability, creating jobs that are high-value, high-technology manufacturing jobs. The Turnbull government is delivering on that part of our economy—a part of the economy that Labor utterly abandoned. Under Labor the level of spending on defence as a percentage of GDP was the lowest since 1938—1.56 per cent—and yet they have the hide to try to interject on me. They reduced spending on defence; they saw it as a cash cow they could rip money off and put it into other parts of the budget. This government has committed to defence and defence industry. I see my friends from Western Australia here. Western Australia is another big winner from the government's massive increase in capability, whether it is the offshore patrol vessels, the Pacific patrol boats, or the HMAS Stirling upgrade. The list is endless—all because this government is in power. (Time expired)