Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answers from Senator Johnston to questions from opposition senators. I think those who are listening to this debate, if they can see it, should know that there are no South Australian coalition senators in the room. This is an issue about 12 new submarines that were promised, and now we have a complete reversal of the commitment given by successive governments to defence shipbuilding and submarine building.

I do not want to stand here and say that everything has been perfect, but if you have a glance at the air warfare destroyer program you will see the comments in there going to the heart of what Senator Wong's contribution was. There have been people on both sides of the chamber committed to building naval hardware, submarines, warfare destroyers and the like. Successive governments accepted that there was a premium on that. There was a 30 per cent premium; it is quantified in the audit report. Successive governments quantified a premium on building this stuff in Australia, developing the capability and developing the workforce, because building your own submarines, your own hardware to defend this nation, is the sensible thing to do. Minchin, Hill and Downer were all great contributors in this space.

But what do we have now? We have a complete absence of anyone in the government articulating for the workforce. We had the minister saying that people in the gallery should have some influence and get people to be more productive. I was on the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit. I asked the question: is this a case of people taking the wages and not doing the work? The answer came back, 'No, Senator, that is not the case. It is the fact that we have redrawn the work several times.' In some cases the work was redrawn up to six times, and the work had been done three times by the workforce. The productivity of the workforce is not in question. The productivity overall in the scheme is in question, because Spanish designers do not translate into Australian shipbuilders.

There is the same issues with the Collins class submarines. I have spoken to people who work in that area, and the redrawing of the drawings was compounding the cost blowout in every case. Yet these people have the gall to say it is the workforce. Senator Fawcett knows very clearly that it is not the workforce. He is intimately involved with this and understands the issue very well. He is not in the chamber today. Senator Edwards is probably a bit bereft of knowledge in this area. Senator Birmingham and Senator Bernardi—all absent in defending what is a very critical part of the South Australian economy. We want to be the defence state. You can get bipartisan cooperation on this if you invest in it. It has been going on since Robert Hill, Nick Minchin and Downer. They understood that you need to invest.

What we have now, very clearly—I am not sure how confidential this is—in a briefing this morning the Japanese ambassador said, 'We are looking forward to a very close cooperation with Australia, particularly in respect of submarines.' What does that do for the workforce there, patiently waiting for someone to get their act together so that they can actually build and deliver 100 per cent on-time, first class, excellent products? It terrifies those people. They are without a voice in the government. If you look around the other side of the chamber, there are people of independent mind and stature who do take their own side on—they have taken their own side on with the PPL and whatever else they disagree with. Senator Macdonald has been toasting the Finance Minister at length in committee. He has repeatedly asked questions about the sense of the Finance Minister's arguments. What do we have here? Not one South Australian making a contribution, other than Senator Birmingham's snide remark about the Leader of the Opposition leaving for an important meeting. That is a shame. They need to be truly embarrassed for themselves. They need to stick up for South Australia and have a go.