Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm a passionate advocate for veterans, including their transition back into civilian life. Today I would like to highlight a really positive story about Austal Australia, who are based out of Henderson in Western Australia. I recently met with their outgoing CEO and managing director, David Singleton, and the board of the R&R Veterans Transition Centre, based in Jarrahdale. We discussed how this important WA based defence prime contractor can invest in the veterans transition centre via the Austal Giving program. It is hoped that, once the details are ironed out, a task force of Austal employees will descend on the centre and invest their time, their funds and their energy into a project that will boost the centre's ability to support the delivery of services to veterans and to their families. This will also create a fantastic partnership where transitioning ex-defence personnel will interact with Austal employees, helping open up job opportunities.

I, along with federal colleagues, including Andrew Hastie, Ministers Linda Reynolds and Melissa Price, welcome this area in our home patch, as does state MLA Alyssa Hayden, and we look forward to seeing the potential of this future partnership really come into shape over coming weeks. I'd also like to congratulate the chief operating officer of Austal, Patrick Gregg, who will be promoted to the role of Austal's chief executive officer on 1 January 2021. I wish him all the best in the role.