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

I absolutely disagree with the proposition that Senator Patrick put in relation to that. We are absolutely committed to ensuring that critical skills are retained in the shipbuilding sector in Australia. In fact, our commitment to continuous naval shipbuilding will support at least 15,000 Australian jobs by the end of the decade, and over 5,000 of those will be in South Australia.

We know that the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia is one of two principal shipyards. We know Osborne is hosting the construction of nine Hunter class frigates, plus major upgrades to the Navy's three AWDs and full-cycle docking of six Collins class submarines.

The Morrison government have, frankly, delivered in the budget on our commitment to provide our service women and men with the vital equipment they need to keep us safe. We are committed to finding a role for every skilled shipbuilding worker impacted by the Attack class decision. We'll partner with ASC to manage and implement the new sovereign shipbuilding talent pool as well, which will redeploy the existing shipbuilding workforce throughout our current and new shipbuilding programs. (Time expired)