Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Hansard source

I am tempted to respond, but I will honour your direction, Acting Deputy President. Our fate in South Australia is solely in the hands of Mr Pyne. If I were a defence worker in South Australia I would be very nervous at this point in time. We saw how he responded to Holden. We saw how he responded to the components industry. We saw how he did not come to the assistance of the mining companies that want to mine in Woomera. I would be very nervous now if I were a Defence worker.

What Senator Carr says in his motion—I will read the last paragraph—is:

… incorporate the long term opportunities for the Australian shipbuilding industry as a strategic priority in all future naval procurement plans.

That is what he is asking for. We need to come forward with projects that will ensure all of the great skills that we have built up over 20 years in this industry and that have given us a sense of national security. As I mentioned before, the circumstances in Ukraine show us just how quickly international circumstances can change overnight. You think you are secure one day, and the next day you find that you do not have that security. The shipbuilding industry does provide us with that security, Mr Acting Deputy President Edwards. I know that you know this, but all of the South Australian senators need to get onto Senator Johnston. He sits right there; you could always grab him just before or just after question time—any time—and say to him, 'We can't sit on our hands. We can't let the shipbuilding industry go the same way that we have seen the manufacturing of cars go, and there is the lack of support for the mining industry.' We have to do something, and we have to do it now. We cannot wait any longer. These companies will start laying off labour. The workers themselves will start saying, 'We have no job security in Australia. We've got all these skills. We've gone to university courses, at Flinders University and the University of Adelaide, as well as the Maritime Skills Centre, but the skills are no good to us because this government is not prepared to commit to the national security of this country. We cannot wait for the white paper. We have to act now.