Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am one very proud senator for Western Australia. Whilst there are obviously a multitude of reasons for that pride in our great state of Western Australia, we as a state are again doing what we absolutely do best—working together to transform our economy by taking advantage of new industrial opportunities in our state. In the late 1800s it was gold; throughout the 1900s it was agriculture, iron ore, oil and gas; and today, it is becoming defence industry. We are a state built on opportunity, on enterprise, on ingenuity and on exploration. But because of our isolation we have never really had a choice. The state government has also always worked hand-in-hand with industry to develop new commercial opportunities. Most recently, these qualities have been focused on the resources sector and have provided enormous national prosperity and wealth for our nation. Today Western Australia is an economy in transition from resources construction and, by my latest count, over $250 billion worth of investment has gone into the Pilbara region alone. We have gone from resources construction to focusing now on mining production. Contrary to the harbingers of doom, in this place and in the media, the resources boom is far from over, as we are now exporting more than we ever have from Western Australia.

As a result of the new opportunities that are opening up in the defence sector, and as a transitioning economy, we are now rapidly turning our considerable competitive advantages in Western Australia to the defence industry. We are in the process of breaking the decades-old grip which states such as South Australia and other eastern seaboard states have had on defence industry, and we are doing that simply by showing just how good we are as a state. Mr Acting Deputy President Gallacher, if you had asked anyone 18 months ago what WA was capable of in the defence sphere, you would most likely have been met with an almost-blank stare. In fact, when I first started talking on radio about our own homegrown commercial shipbuilding capabilities, callback listeners actually rang in and said I was mad—of course we did not build ships in Western Australia! How ludicrous was that thought. But how things have changed in such a short period of time.

Why is Western Australia so well-placed now to deliver significant defence capability for the next 50 years and beyond? I would like to share some little-known facts with my colleagues in this place today. Today, Western Australia is already home to over 180 small-to-medium enterprises who already have defence contracts worth more than $624 million; many of whom are small companies employing five or fewer staff. Another little-known fact in this place is that Western Australia is already home to most of the large defence primes based here in Australia. They already have extensive footprints in Western Australia. Our steel fabrication capability is the largest by far in Australia. Today we produce 190,000 tonnes of steel per annum, with the ability to deliver up to 350,000 tonnes per annum. So, contrary to those over east who say that high-end manufacturing is dead in Australia, Western Australia is absolute proof that that is simply not true.

Currently we produce billions of dollars of manufactured goods for our oil, gas and mining sectors. A little known fact is that Western Australia already exports well over $20 billion worth of high-end manufactured goods every year without a subsidy in sight. Over the last 14 years, in fact, while manufacturing has increased at a miserly 0.4 per cent nationally, in Western Australia manufacturing has increased by nearly five per cent every year. That is a significant capability.