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

I absolutely do not accept the premise of Senator Patrick's question. I was just about to say in my previous answer that we're transitioning 270 submarine design jobs from France to Australia. We've announced that Laing O'Rourke is the managing contractor to construct a purpose-built submarine yard at Osborne North, creating hundreds of construction jobs. We've announced that Lockheed Martin Australia will design and integrate the $700 million combat system for the Attack class, creating around 200 Australian jobs.

We are still in the very early phases of this. But, in terms of activities that are going to be located here, we have, just for starters: detailed design; product engineering; design authority for sustainment; land based integration and testing; sea based integration and testing; construction of the submarine construction yard, which I referred to; construction of the 12 boats themselves; construction of the support infrastructure—ranges, wharves and training; and development of a sovereign supply chain to support the fleet, including ongoing sustainment of the fleet such as upkeep, updates and upgrades. We are absolutely committed to maximising Australian industry content. (Time expired)