Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

That is a very important supplementary question because, for too long, our naval shipbuilding projects have been developed in isolation, which has led to a process of peaks and troughs in demand. Each time there is a trough, industry has gone through a very painful decline. Workers have been let go, resulting in a loss of valuable skills and experience. This means that each time we start a new naval build we start cold. It takes time and money to rebuild that lost skills base. What this government's continuing shipbuilding strategy is determined to do is eliminate that boom-bust cycle that has afflicted the industry for far too long. It will need to draw on Defence, it will need to draw on state and federal governments, it will need to draw on industry and workers at educational institutions to train and skill our workforce, it will need to draw on research organisations to ensure that we have a strong, viable and sustainable sovereign capability to build and sustain our naval vessels for decades to come. (Time expired)