Craig Kelly (Hughes, 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 Morrison government's record investment in defence industry is backing small business and creating jobs throughout Australia?

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Hughes for his question, because he's like me: I'm very proud of our government's commitment to defence industry and to creating more jobs in the defence industry. The Morrison government is investing $200 billion in our defence capability, creating thousands more jobs in our defence industries and making many more opportunities for small businesses. All of this is possible because we have a strong economy and because of our government's strong budget management. But this record investment is not just about equipping our Defence Force, our men and women in uniform, as important as that is. It is also about creating jobs—Australian jobs; good jobs.

It was only last week that the Prime Minister and I had the pleasure of opening Quickstep's new facility out in Western Sydney. Let me tell you: manufacturing in Australia is alive and well. I'm sure the Prime Minister will agree with me that Quickstep is an excellent example of advanced manufacturing that is actually happening right here in our Australian defence industry. We have thousands of small businesses in this country that have manufacturing capability that are helping our Defence Force right across the nation.

Quickstep is no different. It really is a true Aussie success story. In 18 years it has gone from being a small start-up in Western Australia to now being a leading supplier to the global F-35 program. The new facility that the Prime Minister opened last week will manufacture countermeasures for the F-35 program, which is going to create at least 20 new highly-skilled jobs on top of the existing 200 highly-skilled jobs of people employed by Quickstep.

There are US$250,000 worth of Quickstep products on every F-35 globally, and I was incredibly proud when I saw it with my own eyes when I visited Lockheed Martin's production line in Texas the other week. It was a very proud moment. It's businesses like Quickstep that our government is backing to create more and more Aussie jobs. All of this is possible, it's worth remembering, because we have a strong economy and good budget management. Fifty Australian businesses, so far, have participated in the F-35 program, manufacturing parts valued at around $1.69 billion and employing more than 2,000 Aussies. We're on track, to increase that number to 5,000 Australians involved in the F-35 program by 2023, sharing in more than $5 billion of work. The Morrison government is backing small businesses and backing those small businesses in our defence industries.