Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Today's Australian Financial Review splashed this:

The taxpayer-owned shipbuilder ASC is offering jobs to hundreds of employees from the axed French submarine program at the same pay and conditions, as well as an extra two weeks' leave, promising workers no one will be worse off.

The Morrison government has put forward an offer of a guaranteed job. Yet workers, who had woken up feeling that maybe they had been looked after, then found in today's Senate estimates that there is only enough funding for these 300 workers to be paid for three months—yes, only three months. Three months is hardly a guaranteed job. If you are a submarine worker in Adelaide, the Morrison government are gaslighting you. You've got a job guaranteed for just 90 days.

But the Morrison government have a solid history of gaslighting Australians. Indeed, this morning, when Senator Wong was questioning Senator Birmingham, she exposed the fact that the decision as to whether full-cycle docking was staying in South Australia or moving to WA was clearly a political decision. The full-cycle docking announcement was finally made last month, buried by the AUKUS announcement, when they needed it to fill a fresh political purpose—a poor attempt at masking future job losses in South Australia. This very important decision for our submarine capability and our submariners was nothing but a political carrot for the Liberal government—years of stringing along WA and South Australia, all for political benefit.

Now let's look at the other projects. While the government has made much of the current Guardian class offshore patrol vessels and evolved Cape class patrol vessels currently under construction in Western Australia, there is little certainty of ongoing work following the end of these projects. In his press conference on 16 September, the Prime Minister said there was more ship construction work coming to Western Australia over the coming decade, and he listed an ice-rated replacement for the Navy's Ocean Protector; a new large salvage and repair vessel; and up to four support ships for the enhanced undersea surveillance system. The Prime Minister also said that same day that his government would work with the Western Australian government to invest in a large dry dock at Henderson—'work with'. That's not a commitment, although it's a convenient teaser for a federal election campaign, I bet. Western Australian industry tell me that they don't think any work for any of these projects has been awarded or contracted yet. In fact, industry tell me that, even though the PM says the work is going to Western Australia, the minister responsible has floated the idea of the work actually going elsewhere. It just goes to show how much a guarantee from this Morrison government is worth.

This Morrison government needs to get serious about supporting Australian defence industry. We knew they were taking it for granted before, with Australian content on the old Attack class submarine contract down to 60 per cent from the original 90 per cent, with no consequences. Then the Prime Minister said recently that the government's intention is to build the nuclear powered submarines in South Australia, maximising the use of Australian workers, but now we're hearing that the Morrison government aren't going to push for Australian industry to be involved in the future build of the nuclear submarines and that it's not a priority. It seems that intention isn't worth much from this government either.

I say to Australian defence industry: the Morrison government is gaslighting you too. It is only Labor that will invest in Australian defence industry, grow our industry through the National Reconstruction Fund, skill up apprentices so that we have the expertise we need when we need it, and develop sovereign capability here in Australia, because Labor is committed to a future made in Australia. It's only Labor that will ensure defence project contracts are transparent and companies are accountable to ensure that work happens here in Australia, that we develop the IP here in Australia, that we develop our capability and that we're not just sending this work offshore. This government is clear. This government is all about announcement but never about actual delivery.