Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Skills and Training: how will the AUKUS skills and training academy drive Australia's workforce and skills development?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly I thank the member for Wills for his question and his ongoing interest in national security. An historic announcement last week will result in this country having superior defence capability and ensure there is no defence gap. The acquisition, followed by the production, of conventionally armed nuclear powered submarines is a game changer for our national security and a step change for our manufacturing sector.

Of course this is first and foremost a national security decision, but the economic benefits that flow from this decision are there for all to see: thousands and thousands of jobs in South Australia, in Western Australia and in fact across the nation, both direct and indirect jobs, starting with the construction phase at Osborne shipyards in South Australia and HMAS Stirling in Western Australia and going on to the production of submarines. As the Prime Minister said earlier, we're talking about occupations including tradespeople, highly skilled technicians, engineers, scientists, submariners, project managers and many more.

Without the planned pipeline of skills to this very large and very long defence contract this goal cannot be achieved and will not be achieved. The role therefore of tertiary sectors, both vocational education and training and universities, is absolutely critical. Furthermore, in response to the question asked by the member for Wills, key to this goal is a skills and training academy which will be a dedicated hub to educate and train our workforce and ensure continuous development of the skills of that workforce. It will be a whole-of-nation initiative, with the central campus located in South Australia. Indeed there are already some very fine examples we can learn from, including BAE Systems Submarines in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, and there are other very good models as well.

There is no doubt that, given the scale of this endeavour, we will need to draw together industry, businesses and unions, universities and the VET sector and state and territory governments. For my part I will engage with state and territory ministers through the ministerial council when we're negotiating the national skills agreement this year, because what we do require is a strategic approach to the investment in skills in this country not just for AUKUS but for the transformation of the energy sector and other areas that we confront in our economy. This government does not underestimate the enormity of the challenge that we face, but we'll dedicate ourselves to getting this done in the national interest.