Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

If I might, on indulgence, just say to our friends from Malaysia: selamat datang. It's great to have you here, and we thank you for your friendship.

In relation to the guided weapons and explosive ordnance program, or GWEO, as it is known, as you know, Senator, the government is very focused on making decisions to keep Australians safe and to create a future made in Australia. An aspect of that is the delivery of a sovereign guided weapons enterprise, and we've backed this up through our actions. We will start manufacturing missiles in Australia next year. We've committed up to $21 billion over the next decade. There has been the acquisition of long-range strike weapons, and recently my colleague Senator Conroy announced that the government would invest some $850 million to manufacture long-range missiles in Australia, in partnership with Kongsberg Defence Australia. The factory in Newcastle will be able to manufacture both the joint-strike and naval-strike missiles, and it will be the first factory outside of Norway to make these missiles—