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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-19 Daily Xml
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Australian Submarine Corporation Jobs

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier join me in insisting that the federal government deliver on its 90 per cent—

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett, you are called to order and warned. If this continues, you will be out. Leader, can I have the question again.

The Hon. A. Piccolo interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Light is called to order. The leader has the call. I would like to hear the question at least, please.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier join me in insisting that this federal government delivers on its commitment to ensure that 90 per cent of all the future submarine work is done here in Australia, particularly South Australia where it belongs?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:11): The Leader of the Opposition was clearly getting bored with full cycle docking, so now he is moving to Australian industry content on the future—

Mr Malinauskas: Well, they're both really important.

The SPEAKER: Leader! The leader is interjecting.

Mr Brown: Try to answer this one.

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is called to order. You have asked the question. Let's hear the answer.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, I think that the commitments that were made by the federal government and by the Naval Group in the lead-up to the signing of the Strategic Partnering Agreement for the 12 Attack class submarines was very clear, and that is that it was going to be an Australian build and that that Australian build would actually—

Mr Malinauskas: No, 90 percent.

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier is called to order.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

Mr Malinauskas: You think it's funny.

The SPEAKER: Leader, I cannot have you continue to shout. If this continues, members will be departing. The Premier has the call. I would like to hear his answer.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Captain Negative seems to have taken his angry pills today, which is a little bit unfortunate.

The SPEAKER: Premier, respectfully I ask you, please, do not provoke the opposition and, please, if you have an answer, give it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, on my left!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Please, members.

Mr Brown: Pretend you're in charge.

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The question was about Australian industry content. It was made very clear by the commonwealth and by the Naval Group in the lead-up to the signing of the Strategic Partnering Agreement (SPA) that the construction and, indeed, the maintenance, the ongoing sustainment of the Attack class submarines, 12 Attack class submarines, would be an Australian build and that that build would centre around Osborne here in South Australia.

It's early days, but I have every expectation that is exactly and precisely what will be achieved. The Leader of the Opposition might be keen to know that, on the information that has been provided to me, there was no specific content requirement included in the SPA—

Mr Brown: We know that. Who signed it?

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —cue outrage—so I took the opportunity to see whether, when it was in government, Labor actually put those Australian industry content hurdles into any of their contracts. Unfortunately, that wasn't done. So, you see, this is not something new. I know that we want to have a lot of outrage on that side of the chamber, but the reality is that Australian content providers need to compete with the best in the world, and that's fine by me. That is 100 per cent fine by me because I—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —unlike those opposite, have—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —absolute confidence in the capability that we have here in South Australia and more broadly around Australia. I think that we can compete with the best in the world, and evidence of that is the production of the Collins class submarines, which were done in South Australia, where I understand the Australian industry content was above 70 per cent. I have every expectation that we will be able to maximise the amount of South Australian and Australian content that goes into those submarines.

Of course, I know you like to have some limited amount of compare and contrast, so I will now switch to compare and contrast. Let's take a look at the last time the Australian Labor Party were in government federally. How many vessels did they support? They didn't commission one single vessel in that six-year period, and the reason is that they have never had any confidence in the Australian manufacturing capability. By contrast, since the Coalition were elected—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and I'm sure you will be interested in this, 54 vessels—zero and 54. It's been an amazing turnaround. Where was the Leader of the Opposition? Where was the Australian Labor Party complaining during those six years when they were out putting up posters for Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard again. I hope you didn't throw those posters out originally because she came back! She might come back again. Who knows?

But the reality is not a word—not a word—from those opposite when they were in government complaining about not a single solitary vessel commission because they had no faith whatsoever in the ability of our suppliers in South Australia to provide at the very highest levels.

The SPEAKER: I am giving the leader another question.

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