House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-23 Daily Xml

Contents

Future Submarines Program

156 Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (1 July 2020). Can the premier confirm that late last year the NAVAL Group raised concerns with the Premier regarding skills shortage for the Future Submarines project?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier): I have been advised:

The South Australian government has regular conversations with defence industry companies regarding workforce skills requirements.

The Naval Shipbuilding College (NSC) is assessing the workforce demand for naval shipbuilding programs, which include the Hunter class frigate and Attack class submarine programs. It is important to address it as a whole of enterprise requirement so the solutions are effective and efficient, and do not advantage one project at the expense of another.

Naval Group, BAE Systems and other industry participants provide NSC with their South Australian workforce needs.

The near term focus is on the supply of combat system engineers, systems engineers, designers (drafters), integrated logistics support, quality and structural engineers, as the priorities identified by the Naval Shipbuilding College. These roles are necessary for the design of both the Hunter class frigate and Attack class submarine.