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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-20 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

FUTURE SUBMARINE PROJECT

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:01): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Today, I had the pleasure, together with the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, to tour the Techport facility at Osborne. It follows the announcement during the weekend that the federal government will provide commonwealth funding for a manufacturing precinct with a defence focus to be set up in Adelaide. This support reinforces the state government's commitment to building a sustainable defence industry in South Australia.

Generating revenue of $1.8 billion and currently employing around 27,000 people directly and indirectly, defence remains a critical industry for this state and the foundation of our advanced manufacturing. The South Australian government's commitment to building the defence industry was reflected in our investment of over $300 million in the Techport facility, which was central to our state winning that bid for the $8 billion air warfare destroyer contract.

Over the course of last year, the commonwealth government has made several announcements which have reinforced the importance of our state's maritime manufacturing capability, most recently with the decision to base the Future Submarine Systems Centre in Adelaide. In addition, the commonwealth government invested $214 million in the last budget to commence planning for the project and to select which of the four broad design options to pursue. Some of these options are more favourable to the state's defence industry than others, but every option being considered still results in the assembly of the submarines in Adelaide.

There are two possible paths we can go down. Do we outsource the building of our submarines and, in doing so, gift an entire industry to a foreign country, or do we back Australian workers and manufacturing and commit to long-term investments in building a robust home-grown capability to deliver and sustain our Navy's future submarines?

Both the state and federal Labor governments support building submarines in South Australia. All of us in South Australia should support that proposition and we should do all we can to ensure that, at a federal level, it is supported by all political parties. The future of our defence industry is critical to the future of our state and deserves the full attention of our parliament.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Bragg to order.

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