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

I thank Senator Patrick for his question and some advice of the question. As Senator Patrick is well aware—in fact, perhaps he is better aware than most in the chamber, given his own professional experience, one would hope—this is a very long-term project. He knows that. This is a project which this government took on after those opposite completely abrogated their responsibility to ensure that Australia had the submarine capability it required to do the jobs that we asked the ADF to do. Our commitment to Australian industry engagement and industry content in the Attack class submarine program is absolutely steadfast.

Senator Patrick used a couple of figures in his question. He referred to a 90 per cent figure, which, as I recall, was actually used by a then DCNS official and not initiated by Minister Pyne. The involvement of Australian industry in the Attack class submarine program is critically important to its sovereign construction, its operation and the sustainment of the Attack class submarine fleet. That's the premise which we have operated on from the very beginning of this process. I have told this chamber, on a number of occasions and in the various incarnations of my responsibility, that we will not put a ceiling on local content because we want to absolutely maximise it.

We've made a variety of major announcements on how we're securing work in Australia, including the signing of the strategic partnering agreement; the signing of the design contract; the signing of a framework agreement between Naval Group Australia and ASC, identifying ways to collaborate with each other to support Australia's sovereign submarine capability; the establishment of the Naval Shipbuilding College in South Australia, to ensure that we've got the workers we need to get the jobs done; the transition of 270 jobs— (Time expired)