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

I would like to put on the record very early in the piece some comments that have been made around the Collins class submarine. Ian Mcphedran said:

In what has been regarded as one of the most incredible naval shipbuilding feats of the modern era, the first Swedish designed Collins class submarine, HMAS Collins was commissioned from a former greenfield site at Port Adelaide in July 1996, just nine years after the project began. The Collins class boats are extremely stealthy and have been known to sneak right under US aircraft carriers to photograph their keels.

So we have a very successful base here. We have world recognised technology efficiency and shipbuilding capability in these submarines. What we do not have, if I can use Senator Abetz's metaphor from his generous contribution to Senator Lundy yesterday, is people looking forward and telling the South Australian community that we need to do this build, design, sustain, maintain in Australia. We have to use his analogy—looking one way and doing another. That is exactly what this coalition government is doing—looking one way and saying: 'Nothing to see here, South Australian public. We will give you 500 jobs.' There was that debacle of a press conference where it came out that the minister was unable to describe what competitive evaluation was but said, 'Don't worry; there will be 500 jobs in it.'

We really need to go back and revisit some of the earlier contributions. When we questioned the Defence minister we were labelled incongruous and stupid. He then went on to say that the ASC could not build a canoe, when all of the evidence in South Australia with the supplement that has been read by thousands of South Australians this week is to the contrary.

What happened is our Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of Japan got together and did a deal. As Senator Conroy said, the National Security Committee ticked off on revoking the promise that we would build 12 submarines right here in Adelaide. That went out the window, and if you want to go into it deeper, Senator Cormann and the Hon. Joe Hockey said, 'Where are we going to save some more money? Slash and burn—who cares about South Australia?' They now have to revisit that because there is such widely-held and deeply-felt antagonism to this position put by this coalition government that people's seats are in jeopardy.

We know from the by-election results of Davenport and Fisher that people are prepared to change their mind about who they support on this issue. And why should we have Senator Birmingham touting programs of training and employer positions, which are all valuable, but there is never a word said about his own state? Never a word is said about ASC. Never a word is said about the small businesses, the people who need these opportunities in South Australia. Not a word is said about the destruction that the closure of Holden will cause in our northern suburbs. If we do not do this design, build and sustain in South Australia, it will be cumulative. He is out there announcing good programs but he is not at home defending his own state.

We know that the member for Hindmarsh is, at every opportunity, trying to defend himself in that electorate, which is a very marginal electorate. We know that Andrew Southcott is increasingly concerned and has fronted up behind any opportunity to get some profile in this argument. But unless they actually agree to what has been put to them today, they are going to pay extreme electoral pain. People in South Australia want it built. They want the promise honoured. The Labor Party has stepped up in a bipartisan way today as we always have with this project. There has always been bipartisan support. The Australian National Audit Office actually says that there is bipartisan support for this naval shipbuilding capability. And it must continue in South Australia. We will take this issue on for as long as it needs to be to win it. (Time expired)