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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-12 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

DEFENCE WHITE PAPER

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:02): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: On Saturday 2 May, the federal government released the 2009 Defence White Paper which confirmed Adelaide as the location for the construction of a fleet of 12 new Royal Australian Navy submarines at a reported cost of $30 billion. When the project begins 20 years from now, it will be the single largest contract in Australian history and will entrench long-term defence manufacturing in South Australia out to the middle of this century and, quite probably, beyond.

In short, this Defence White Paper signals that our state has a future in manufacturing, one that will offer generations of South Australians thousands of jobs and, with those jobs, long-term career paths. It means white and blue collar workers, tradespeople, engineers, designers, systems analysts and scientists can not only build and develop their own careers but also their children can be offered the same opportunities. It affords our state the strong foundations for an industry that we can build on and, like our rapidly growing mining industry, will provide a valuable economic base the type of which could only be dreamed of just a decade ago.

This has come about because this government strategically pursued huge defence contracts in an effort to diversify our state's economy. That is why we embarked on a campaign to win the $8 billion air warfare destroyer contract, even though Melbourne in Victoria was the favourite. To back it up, this government made an investment of well over $300 million in building the most modern and sophisticated shipbuilding facility in the southern hemisphere—which is the Techport Australia facility at Osborne.

Federal Labor's 2007 defence election policy summed up our strategic approach like this:

South Australia is the only credible location for the construction of Australia's next generation of submarine. This commitment is also necessary to give certainty to the long-term maintenance and expansion of the defence industry and technology base in South Australia, capabilities necessary for Australia's long-term national defence.

Techport Australia and the Australian Submarine Corporation's new shipyard have put our state in the box seat to benefit substantially from the larger and more potent maritime force announced in the White Paper.

This government intends to aggressively pursue more than three air warfare destroyers and more than the 12 new submarines that will eventually replace the six Collins class submarines. We now also set our sights on the contract—revealed in the White Paper—to build eight new anti-submarine frigates to replace the Anzac class frigates. We are delighted that the federal government has left open the option of building a fourth air warfare destroyer.

The White Paper abounds with other opportunities—if not to get whole contracts, then at the very least to get large components of those contracts. The federal government has also announced plans to purchase around 20 new offshore combatant vessels to consolidate and replace the Navy's patrol boats, mine counter measure vessels and hydrographic survey ships.

Six new ocean-going landing craft will replace the aging landing craft heavy vessels, while the Navy's oldest underway supply ship, HMAS Success, will be replaced with a new replenishment vessel to enable combat ships to refuel at sea without going into port. The government will also acquire a large new strategic sealift ship that will complement the two landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious ships that will enter service in the first half of the next decade.

South Australia is well positioned to compete for a large portion of the shipbuilding work that will flow on from these plans to improve and strengthen our maritime forces. The Edinburgh defence precinct also plays a crucial role in our future defence planning, as outlined by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during his recent visit here. The White Paper outlines significant funding to increase the combat power and survivability of the Army, as well as improving its ability to operate as a modern networked, mobile and highly adaptable force.

Construction is well underway for the Army's new 7RAR mechanised battalion to arrive in 2011, which is generating, I am advised, about $100 million worth of investment into the South Australian economy and around 1,600 jobs. I should put that into context: it is a nearly $700 million expansion which, when completed and when the battalion arrives, will be spending about $100 million each year into the South Australian economy.

Edinburgh is also central to the Air Force's future plans, following the government's proposal to replace the aging AP-3C Orions with eight new maritime patrol aircraft and up to seven large and advanced maritime surveillance UAVs. The federal government has also decided to upgrade half the fleet of 20 FA-18F super hornets for the potential future conversion to the Growler electronic warfare variant. If taken, this decision will provide a substantial boost to defence's electronic warfare capabilities which, again, will have a direct benefit to South Australia.

As outlined in the White Paper, defence will establish a joint electronic warfare centre through the collocation of a number of existing organisations. The White Paper indicates that this centre is likely to be located in Adelaide.

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation also benefits greatly from the new White Paper, with the federal government committing $10 million to fund a program of technology upgrades to its laboratories and technical facilities. The federal government will commit $53 million to deepen defence science relationships and ensure our men and women will continue to benefit from access to leading edge technology. It has also recognised the need to remediate a large amount of important supporting facilities that were overlooked and neglected for so long by the former government. That is why the federal government will be spending around $30 billion over the decade to fix core capabilities, including $118 million over the next four years to remediate the Woomera Test Range.

Finally, the White Paper also outlines reforms in the way reservists are managed, which will focus on better integration between part-time and full-time service in the Defence Force and removing administrative barriers so that reservists can make a full contribution to the capability of the Australian Defence Force. This will again have a positive impact for South Australia, given the comparatively large and dedicated reserve workforce that is resident in this state.

While many of these projects are still off in the future, it is important to recognise that the complex task of preparing for these contracts has already begun. For instance, Pacific Marine Batteries, adjacent to the Techport Australia shipbuilding yard at Osborne, recently won one of the very first contracts to identify the best new technologies available for the new submarine batteries on the next generation of submarines. The contract and PMB's own R&D work has already created 20 new engineering and technical jobs at Pacific Marine Batteries.

The Defence White Paper made it clear that the capability definition, design and construction for the new fleet of submarines 'must be undertaken without delay, given the long lead times and technical challenges involved'. In other words, many jobs will be created over the coming years in preparing for the next generation of submarines and other possible contracts. I want South Australian companies to be ready and in the front line to win as many of these jobs as possible. We believe we can easily exceed South Australia's Strategic Plan target of taking our defence workforce from 16,000 jobs to 28,000 jobs by 2013.

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