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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-27 Daily Xml
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Submarine Program

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): My question is to the Premier. Is the Premier concerned about the impact of the high profile effort from the Western Australian government made through formal submissions, business cases and advertising campaigns to the commonwealth for the full cycle docking work of the Collins class?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:09): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier and the member for Badcoe are called to order.

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is also called to order. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir, and I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I think this now doubles all questions he has asked on this topic since he has been Leader of the Opposition, so I am glad that he has actually woken up—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Premier, please be seated for one moment. There is a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That is clearly debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: The point of order is for debate. I have the point of order.

An honourable member: That's wrong.

The SPEAKER: Premier, I would ask you to come back to the substance of the question and for members to cease interjecting, please. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir. I was just exclaiming with delight the question, and I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question. It's a good question. Yes, the Western Australians—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —have a different approach to the approach that we have taken. We have worked diligently and assiduously to gather the information that is required by the commonwealth to make a decision, which is really not about jobs being in one state or another state: it's actually about our national security. That's what this is exactly, and—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: This sounds like capitulation.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is now warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: This is what this issue is 100 per cent about, and that is about our national security. Our submarine capability is one of our most important pieces of sovereign defence capability and it needs to be available for the Royal Australian Navy. This is why any decision regarding where the full cycle docking is going to be will affect that sovereign capability, and that's why we are arguing so hard.

The Premier of Western Australia can choose his tactics. We have been asked by the Prime Minister and cabinet, and the people who are ultimately providing the advice to the Prime Minister and cabinet, to answer detailed questions regarding our capability. I am 100 per cent convinced that we have provided every single, solitary piece of detail that they have required. We have commissioned independent studies. They have all supported our argument that it remains the best place for these submarines to undertake the full cycle docking here in South Australia and, as I said, I expect this to continue into the future.

I know that there are some people who think that this should be prosecuted through the media. I note that there was a pamphlet produced by the dream factory earlier today that was out on the front steps of parliament, and this is what they offer—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order. Premier, please be seated for one moment. The point of order?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That is clearly debate.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. There were several facets to the question. Minister for Education.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The question was actually about whether a media campaign was something that concerned the Premier, so a response that reflects an alternative media campaign is entirely relevant.

The SPEAKER: I have the question. There are several facets to it, including advertising to the commonwealth government and whether the Premier was concerned. I am listening very carefully and, if the Premier deviates too far, I will bring him back into line. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: To me, the question was all about the tactics with regard to this. We have outlined our tactics. The Leader of the Opposition is asking whether we should have looked at the other tactics, and I am just running through because we have already made very clear that the Western Australian Premier is using his megaphone diplomacy to try to push for the work to move there. We are using facts that are borne out by evidence that it remains here.

The Leader of the Opposition might have other ideas. He did offer to this house some time ago that he had been down to Osborne and called a press conference. This was part of his campaign. We don't think that this had any effect whatsoever on Canberra. In fact, it didn't have any effect on his own colleagues because it was quite clear that Bill Shorten didn't back the full cycle docking work staying here in South Australia. On the most recent—

Mr Brown: Who's making the decision?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Playford is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —visit by the Australian Labor Party's leader, nationally, on his most recent visit here to South Australia he didn't support full cycle docking work staying here in South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, we are extremely clear—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We are very clear on this side of the house. We are 100 per cent adamant that the work should stay here in South Australia, but we are not just talking about it. We put action into place, and we are making sure that we put ourselves in the very, very best position to retain that work.

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