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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-23 Daily Xml
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Nuclear-Powered Submarines

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier clarify how many jobs will be secured for South Australia for the future nuclear-powered submarines? If so, will he communicate this to his Minister for Defence and Space Industries? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: This morning on radio, the Minister for Defence and Space Industries initially claimed that South Australia would secure 5,000 jobs for the future submarines but shortly afterwards said, 'Don't stake on the 5,000,' as she was unsure what it really is.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the Premier, I just observe a tendency of the leader to add a rhetorical flourish at the end of the introduction of purported facts. Of course, it is contrary to standing orders.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:19): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, but I have a newsflash for the Leader of the Opposition: the AUKUS decision is set to made in about a month's time. It has not yet been publicly announced, and we are not aware of what that will be. It will be that decision that directly informs the job numbers that will be publicly aerated, no doubt.

What I can definitely say is that the prospect of building nuclear submarines means many, many thousands of jobs here in the state of South Australia, and that is something we can all be collectively very excited about. In fact, what I am particularly excited about is having a bit of policy certainty, when it comes to building submarines, for the first time in a decade. We know that since about 2012, when the opposition's federal colleagues were in charge, we've chopped and changed policy—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey! Member for Frome!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —countless times around what type of submarines are going to be built.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I think the first iteration of the Liberal Party's submarine policy—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is on three warnings.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —was to build them in Japan.

Ms Pratt interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Frome is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Well, what a brilliant idea that was; so much so that it helped take out—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the Prime Minister at the time—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —and that is not the least of it, because the former member for Sturt—

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —was paranoid about the prospect of losing his own seat. Of course, we know that was on the back of the extraordinary—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley, it is your final warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —advocacy of the former Labor government. So here we are, a decade after those opposite were sitting back silent at the prospect of submarines being built in Japan, a decade after we faced the prospect then of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —a competitive evaluation process that was going to deliver us the Germans and ended up delivering us the French, and then, just at the point that we were about to see a thousand people employed—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for a final time.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —by Naval, of course the commonwealth changed its decision yet again and we replaced that contract with an 18-month evaluation process, which is about to conclude. I am very proud of the fact that the current federal government actually understand that we cannot keep chopping and changing policy in respect of submarines.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on a final warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What we now have is a government in charge that understands that this program, this project, is fundamentally material to the future security of our nation and, more than that, represents a massive economic opportunity—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —for the future of our state. We anticipate the commonwealth honouring its commitment to make a decision in the month of March and make an announcement with respect to what submarines are being built right here in Adelaide. From that point onwards we will get on with seeing that the private sector invests accordingly around it.

As a state government, what we are doing is fulfilling our end of the bargain of actually developing the skills and the workforce that will be required to get the submarines built. The shipbuilding college the member for Morialta mentions is the only college I know of that didn't have any students, so it is little wonder—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that it didn't stand the test of time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Taylor!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Most colleges and education institutions tend to have students. My government is about educating the students, whether it be with programs like 3-year-old preschool, technical colleges in schools or university amalgamation, to make sure we know—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on a final warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —that we have the skills and the workforce that is required to deliver the submarines of the future here in our state, not just for our state's benefit but for our nation's benefit as a whole.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on his third final warning.

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