Skye Kakoschke-Moore (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senators Xenophon and Carr, I move:

(1) That the Senate notes that:

(a) the SEA 1000 Future Submarine Project, a project that aims to deliver Australia a regionally superior future submarine capability, is likely to be the most expensive and complex project ever undertaken by the Commonwealth of Australia;

(b) on 26 April 2016, the Prime Minister announced that DCNS, the French naval shipbuilding company, would be the design partner for the future submarine, and stated "The submarine project alone will see Australian workers building Australian submarines with Australian steel, here where we stand today, for decades into the future";

(c) subsequent to this announcement, the Defence Minister has made statements in the Parliament that the Government intends to maximise Australian industry involvement, engagement and capability throughout the entire Future Submarine program; and

(d) on 30 September 2016, the Government signed a Design and Mobilisation Contract with DCNS as a first step in the process of designing and building Australia's future submarines, and this contract contains the requirement for DCNS to:

(i) within five months of the effective contract date, of the Design and Mobilisation Contract, develop an Australian Industry Capability Plan for the Future submarine, and

(ii) within four months of the effective contract date, conduct a study into the availability and economic viability of Australian manufactured hull steel equivalent to that normally used by the DCNS and a plan for development of the Australian capability for manufacture of steel in Australia that meets the contractor's and the Commonwealth's requirements for use in the future submarine.

(2) That there be laid on the table by the Minister for Defence, by the start of business on 28 March 2017:

(a) the Australian Industry Capability Plan for the Future Submarine; and

(b) the Australian Steel Development and Qualification Study.

Question agreed to.