Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for Science and Technology. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison government's investment in our defence industry is creating jobs and supporting our economic recovery as we come back from the COVID-19 pandemic?

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

I thank the member for Curtin for her question and acknowledge and thank her for her passion and interest in defence industry, particularly in our home state of Western Australia. Our government's $270 billion investment in our defence capabilities is not only delivering the essential equipment that our men and women in uniform require for the safety and security of our country, as important as that is, but also creating and supporting thousands of Australian jobs in the cities and right across Australia's regions. It's also supporting our economic recovery as we bounce back from COVID-19. Our government is also investing $210 million to overhaul the health facilities for our troops in our Defence Force at RAAF Base Townsville in Queensland, in Puckapunyal in Victoria, in Campbell Barracks in Western Australia and across more than a dozen locations as we build and we upgrade those critically important healthcare facilities for our men and women in uniform.

This is truly a national endeavour, as this project will deliver health services to 35,000 ADF personnel. As well as that it will support some 6,000 local jobs within the construction project. On average across these projects 92 per cent of work has gone to local businesses, and in many cases the target for local involvement has actually been exceeded. I saw this work only recently when I visited RAAF Base Pearce with the Hon. Senator Birmingham, where we had an opportunity to look at the new health facilities at Pearce. I want to take this opportunity to thank those health professionals we met for the very good service that they provide and the tour and to thank them for looking after the health of our ADF personnel.

As we heard from the Minister for Defence today, the Australian defence industry should also be gearing up for the opportunities that AUKUS will offer. The delivery of nuclear powered submarines will require our Australian industry to be involved in helping us to build and to sustain those nuclear submarines. But a closer partnership with respect to the US and UK will also mean opportunities beyond shipbuilding, and I refer to our government's investment of $100 billion over the next 20 years on our sovereign guided weapons enterprise. Our Australian small and medium sized businesses are going to be critical for the success of that important enterprise. We are not slowing down. We are backing our Australian defence industries in the bush and in the city for the defence of our nation.