Defence Shipbuilding

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:05): My question is to the Minister for Defence and Space Industries. Has the Deputy Premier sought and/or received assurances from the federal defence minister that the Hunter Class Frigate Program will not be cut and that there will be a continuous naval shipbuilding program at Osborne? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON: On Wednesday 10 May, the Head Navy Capability said the current discussion in federal defence was about 'no new money or a reduction in the number of vessels to be delivered by the project'.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:06): I thank the shadow minister for his question. The government has been in active discussion with the federal government in the lead-up to the DSR, all the way through and since then. In fact, as recently as yesterday evening I had the opportunity to spend time with the Deputy Prime Minister to discuss these issues, amongst others.

The state government, as I have made clear to the shadow minister on questions along these lines previously, will be making a submission to the 90-day review that is being undertaken by the commonwealth in respect of surface shipbuilding. We are absolutely firm in our view as a state government that the Hunter frigate program should be continued as has been committed to, and that is the government's current position. I do not anticipate a departure from that position.

The commonwealth is very aware of the state government's view around this, and we certainly have a lot of confidence that there is not any reason for concern or alarm, particularly amongst the workforce at Osborne, who are already working on the prototype on the frigate program. More than that, the DSR itself contains an explicit recommendation that makes clear that there needs to be a continuous naval shipbuilding program at Osborne for the purposes of maintenance of the workforce and, in fact, the building up of the workforce that we know is going to be required into the future.

On Monday evening, I again, along with the Minister for Defence and Space Industries, will be in Canberra at the Defending Australia forum being put together by Advertiser Newspapers Ltd. I will enjoy the opportunity to be in Canberra to catch up with various officials. The Deputy Premier and myself are meeting with Vice Admiral Mead. We are meeting again with the defence minister to go through these details, as we will continuously do for the entirety of our period in government.

I think it is appropriate—indeed, I believe it to be necessary—that the commonwealth constantly reviews these programs to ensure that they are improving in their nature. The Hunter program, the new AUKUS submarine program, the Collins class sustainment program, all of these efforts are going to last for years, I think in some cases decades, and you would expect the commonwealth, in conjunction with the state government, to be constantly reviewing how those programs are operating to ensure a program of continuous improvement that delivers better outcomes to the Navy's capability and also better outcomes in respect to workforce and, indeed, the taxpayer.

The 90-day review that is due to be underway on the back of the DSR recommendation is principally about the Navy's capability. The Hunter program, being a multibillion dollar investment on behalf of the commonwealth, naturally should be, particularly given that there have been challenges within it—we should actually be ensuring that as there are new technologies that come on board, new methods, they are in sync with the Navy's capability, particularly given the decision to acquire nuclear submarines, which changes the operational dynamic for the Navy more broadly tactically. So this review makes sense, we are happy to participate in it and we look forward to those jobs that we know are coming to be delivered in the not too distant future.