Tim Wilson (Goldstein, 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 projects like OneSKY will support hundreds of jobs for hardworking Australians, create a stronger national economy and ensure our national security? How does this compare with other approaches?

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

I thank the member for Goldstein for his question. He would be pleased to know, as would all the Victorians in the chamber, that today the government signed a contract with Thales Australia to create OneSKY. OneSKY is the first civilian and military air traffic control system in the world. It's an incredibly ambitious project. It's an example of Australian know-how, technology and sophistication, leading the world in an area which could be incredibly valuable to the Australian economy.

The contract that we've signed today with Thales Australia for $1.2 billion secures 450 jobs in Melbourne and 200 more across the supply chain—businesses like Nova in the member for Brisbane's electorate and Frequentis Australasia in the member for Lilley's electorate. In businesses like Nielsen, DESA and Stowe, there are 160 jobs spread across electorates in Gippsland, Newcastle, Wakefield, Western Sydney and Blair. The OneSKY team run by Thales Australia has already created over a billion dollars worth of exports out of this particular part of the economy over the last few years, growing from 30 to 450 Australians. Their software developers, their engineers and their project managers have been at the forefront of the cutting edge of this kind of technology. It's a really good example of the Turnbull government using the $200 billion heft of the biggest military capability build-up in our nation's history to drive not just capability but jobs, investment and growth in the economy.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

I hear some members of the Labor Party interjecting, which stands in stark contrast to the six Rip Van Winkle years we had under Labor, under Rudd-Gillard-Rudd, where they made not one significant decision in the defence industry, with the valley of death they created in naval shipbuilding, where they didn't commission one vessel to be built in an Australian shipyard in six years, and we have fixed the problem that they've created. We have filled in the valley of death with a $200 billion heft, with a $200 billion investment in military capability, over the next 10 years. We are creating the capability for the Defence Force, but we're creating jobs and investment and growth in the economy that Labor could have only dreamt of when they were in government.