James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately this week we have seen another development of great uncertainty around the surface shipbuilding program in my home state of South Australia. I'm sure members are aware that there is a commitment, which we expect to be honoured by this government, to build nine new Hunter class frigates in my home state of South Australia at the Osborne shipyard. I've followed this project very closely for a long time. I was there in 2015 when the competitive evaluation process was outlined and the commitment given that future frigates would be built in Adelaide. In the wake of the decision to select the BAE Type 26 in 2018 I had the chance to visit the Govan shipyards and see where BAE are making the Type 26 in the UK, much like what we hope will occur in my home state of South Australia but are concerned for. Indeed, I was at the steel cutting for the first blocks to go through the yard at the assembly hall out there at the Osborne South yard in 2020.

So it is with heightened concern that just this week we've seen the Labor Premier of South Australia travel to Canberra and indicate that there might be a risk to this program continuing. Now, even more frighteningly, the Labor Premier has said that the commitment needs to be for at least six vessels built in Adelaide. It didn't take much for him to knock out three vessels, billions of dollars and thousands of jobs for many years at the mere utterance of that sentence. Nonetheless, even that commitment couldn't be secured this week. Of course, we've had this concept of the surface ship review, which some reports indicate could see the whole program scrapped. There's been no denial of that from the defence minister and no confirmation of that program going ahead.

It's frightening for people who rely on this opportunity into the future. That's thousands of direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs in Adelaide underpinning the industrial capability of not only shipbuilding but also a whole range of other industries. We are even told that the surface fleet review might not be released on time this month, in February. This is getting to be absolutely ridiculous. The government has that report, and thousands of jobs are on the line. If they've got a plan to scrap that program or scale it back, they should come clean. I hope that's not the case, and if it's not the case then give us that certainty and those guarantees because in Adelaide we're sick of people playing games with these things. That's all we've got from this minister and this government and it's just not good enough for the workers involved.