Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I only have three minutes to make a contribution on this very important issue because I want my colleague Senator Madigan to speak on behalf of his state of Victoria. In relation to my state of South Australia, this is a bad decision made by the government. I am sick of the blame shifting and the finger pointing as to who should have done what or who could have done what over the last few years and over the last nine months of this government. The fact is this: two supply ships will not be built in Australia. It could have avoided the valley of death. As decent and as good and as capable a Defence minister as Senator Johnston—who, I believe, is a good man grappling with a very difficult portfolio—is, I believe a fundamental mistake has been made by the government.

To say, as Senator Birmingham has said, that we cannot build ships of this size and scale cost-competitively in Australia when we have not even allowed the Australian industry to tender for these ships is a fundamental flaw in the argument of the government. This is what I do not understand: I do not understand why you will not even give Australian industry a go. I understand that the ASC shipbuilding in Adelaide was in a position to deliver these ships in cooperation with an overseas shipbuilder to assist where necessary. I believe they have the capacity to do so, yet they will not even have a chance to tender for these ships, and that is something which baffles me. If, at the end of a tender process, it was simply too expensive or not cost competitive, then I think that Australian manufacturers could wear that. But they were not even given an opportunity to fight for Australian jobs and Australian industry.

Why is it important in my home state of South Australia? It is this: we are losing Holden. We are losing one of the last original automotive manufacturers in the state. We are facing a critical situation in South Australia with manufacturing jobs, and these are good jobs in shipbuilding. There is a transference of skills. There is a transference of decent jobs where people can put food on the table for their families and have good productive jobs. We are losing even the chance to tender for those jobs.

I must say this: I do not have an axe to grind against the Treasurer, Mr Hockey, but what he said last year when he basically taunted Holden—'Are you going to stay or are you going to go?'—was reckless. It was reckless because it destroyed a bipartisan consensus for our auto industry in this country, and I believe it hastened the demise of Holden. Now we are faced with a critical situation where our shipbuilding sector is not even given an opportunity to tender for these two supply ships. The valley of death is a valley of destruction of jobs, it is a valley of destroyed lives, it is a valley of losing skills in this country that we will never, ever get back again. That is why I urge Senator Johnston—a decent man with a good heart—to reconsider this decision as a matter of absolute urgency before it is too late.