Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to address the WA state government's abject failure to invest in critically important state infrastructure at the Henderson maritime precinct. As a senator for WA, and also as a former Minister for Defence, I am proud to have championed and supported this critically important sovereign capability for our nation. However, the ability of our shipbuilding industry in Australia, and particularly in Henderson, to realise its full and growing potential is now seriously constrained by the lack of action by the state government, the McGowan government.

These issues are well known and well documented. For over five years I have been working with the state government to identify these issues and put together a plan to upgrade the facilities. In 2017 I facilitated negotiations and discussions between the then defence industry minister, Christopher Pyne, and Paul Papalia, the defence industry minister in Western Australia. We agreed then, through a series of letters, what needed to be done. Since then, the coalition government has lived up to its end of the bargain. We invested over $1½ billion in the Henderson area and also Garden Island. We also promised nearly $4½ billion for the building of a game-changing dry dock at Henderson.

Alarmingly, both the state and federal Labor governments have gone completely silent on the future of this project. It should be of concern not only to Western Australians but also to all Australians that this important sovereign capability, having a dry dock and a defence marine precinct in Henderson on our west coast, is now in jeopardy. It is not too late. There were five wasted years, but we commissioned the report and we know what needs to be done. It's now up to the McGowan government to get it— (Time expired)