Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

  (1) That the Senate notes that:

     (a) the Government has embarked on a $35 billion program to provide nine Future Frigates to the Royal Australian Navy;

     (b) on 31 March 2017, a Request for Tender (RFT) was released by the Department of Defence to three foreign companies which stated that it was the Commonwealth's intention that the successful tenderer will directly manage and supervise the workforce undertaking the shipbuilding work, and that the responsibility for build management and supervision should not be subcontracted in its entirety to a third party entity;

     (c) the effect of these RFT terms is that Australian shipbuilders ASC Pty Ltd and Austal have been locked out of priming the Frigate Program project and this current plan places Australian shipbuilders in the shadows of new invitee foreign shipyards; noting ASC Shipbuilding has no work on its order books beyond 2019, the Government's approach could have significant impact on the future prospects of the company, and Austal will survive but certainly will not thrive;

     (d) the current RFT will not serve to create a sovereign shipbuilding capability, but rather have the opposite effect;

     (e) the Minister for Defence Industry has been quoted in the media stating that advice from the Department of Defence is that changing the RFT to mandate a particular shipbuilder would result in a delay of at least two years; and

     (f) it is implausible that permitting the fully-established, world-class, Australian shipbuilders ASC Pty Ltd and Austal and their experienced workforce and proven track records would slow down a program that would otherwise require the setting up, from scratch, of a foreign shipbuilder with no current workforce.

  (2) That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Defence Industry, by the close of business on 14 September 2017, a detailed statement from the Minister for Defence Industry justifying his claim made to the media.

Question agreed to.