Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I get to my question for the minister, I would like to talk about how very important our investment in shipbuilding and defence is not just for our nation but also particularly for my home state of South Australia. I am very proud of our record and announcements on this issue. Our investment will not just create thousands of jobs for Australians and South Australians and increase our ability to defend our nation but correct six long years of Labor mismanagement and neglect. We are spending $195 billion on defence procurement over the next decade. This will help keep Australians safe and help keep the wonderful people of our Defence forces as safe as they can be when they put their lives on the line to defend our nation. Our defence investment will also secure our economic future, because defence industries involve the very best of science, technology and manufacturing. My home state of South Australia will particularly benefit from our Defence shipbuilding project and I know the minister will elaborate upon this further in answer to my question.

Our government has commissioned 54 vessels to be built for the Navy over the next several decades. We are doing the sustainment and maintenance of these vessels here. We have opened the Centre for Defence Industry Capability and we have launched the Defence Innovation Hub. We have launched the Naval Shipbuilding College because we have to provide 5,000 workers by the mid-2020s for naval shipbuilding because we need to fill all of the work that will be created in naval shipbuilding in South Australia and around Australia. We need to find those skilled people apprenticeships in welding, fitting and turning because we are building the defence industry in this country like it has never been built before. We are upgrading infrastructure to allow these builds, including the 12 submarines. We are beginning our shipbuilding program with the offshore patrol vessels in 2018. These are the real results a Liberal coalition government delivers for Australia, and for South Australia in particular. We are delivering jobs, we are delivering training, we are building our technical expertise and we are enhancing our national security and that of our Defence forces. This stands in stark contrast to the Labor Party's actions, or inaction, when in government. Those opposite failed to commission a single naval vessel from an Australian shipyard during their entire time in office. This led to the downturn in our shipbuilding industry. It saw the industry lose not only hundreds of jobs but also skills and experience.

During their time in government, Labor cut $18.8 billion from the defence budget. Those opposite delayed 119 Defence capability projects. They reduced 43 projects in scope and they outright cancelled another eight, risking critical security and creating capability gaps. Spending on defence fell to 1.56 per cent of GDP under Labor, the lowest level since 1938. This is not a record of which they should or can be proud. This led to the downturn in our shipbuilding industry—the so-called valley of death, which we have obviously felt significantly in South Australia—and it saw the industry lose hundreds of jobs and the loss of skills and experience, particularly in my home state.

What I am particularly excited about is not just the jobs that will flow from the actual Defence work but the flow-on effect and benefits that private companies gain from doing this sort of work for Defence. There are so many examples of companies in South Australia that do the Defence work but then use the skills that they and their workforce gain from that work to apply to other private sector investments and new industries, new technologies and new products. It is not just the Defence build that is really important to my home state; it is the flow-on effects—the new products and the new skills that those companies gain from this work that they then apply to other economic activity.

Can the minister update members on the significant investments being made in shipbuilding infrastructure that will support the government's naval shipbuilding plan and secure thousands of jobs in my home state of South Australia that are so desperately needed, mainly because of the terrible mismanagement by the state Labor government? I am just so grateful that we are in government federally so we can do what we can to help my home state and my electors and my constituents in my seat of Boothby.

See this speech in context