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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-14 Daily Xml
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Defence Shipbuilding

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): Supplementary to the Premier: in relation to the state government's submission that the Premier referred to, the surface fleet review, can the Premier outline the key themes of that submission and whether or not it specifically urges or recommends that the Hunter class be continued?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:07): I would be happy to. There are a range of areas that the submission that the state government makes will focus on. If I were to give a couple of key themes, they would be these: firstly, we've got a situation in which we are trying to convince young Australians in our labour market, which is as tight as it has ever been, that they should choose naval shipbuilding as a career. What has in no small part prevented young people from making that choice in the past is the constant state of policy flux that naval shipbuilding has found itself in.

We were building the AWDs. We got on top of the AWD program, it was performing well and then it stopped. Then we were going to have a Japanese class of submarine, then we were going to have a French class of submarine and now of course we are going to have the nuclear submarine program. There was a question about what the Future Frigate program was going to be and the conclusion arrived at Hunter.

Now we find ourselves where The Australian is writing articles calling the future of the Hunter program into question. All of this undermines the confidence that young people I think deserve and reasonably require to be able to say, 'Naval shipbuilding is something I want to spend my life doing.' Every time we see a chop and change in policy we undermine that effort, and that will be a substantial theme of our submission.

The second big theme, of course, is that we want to make clear to the commonwealth how committed this state government is to investing in the education, training and skills that are required to develop the workforce program of the future. Not having a substantial policy in regard to education, training and skills around naval shipbuilding in and of itself will be something that the surface shipbuilding review will look at because the lack of workforce represents a risk to the program. What we want to demonstrate to the reviewers is that they can have confidence on the back of what the state government is doing, and that is a lot. That is a lot.

The Minister for Education, Training and Skills, who unfortunately isn't in the chamber at the moment, can speak to this with great authority, but we have made a decision as a government to build five brand-new technical colleges in our high schools, which in no small part will contribute to the development of that workforce.

At Findon Technical College, which is being built as we speak and which will be open at the beginning of next school year, only less than two years after this government has been formed, there will be a technical college in the western suburbs of Adelaide where a young person can put their hand up to do the advanced manufacturing program at that school, and when they complete that program they will be guaranteed a job at BAE Systems working on the frigate program. They are the sorts of innovative investments that this government is making to develop the workforce of the future.

Then, of course, what we have started to do is reinvest in TAFE. Rather than cut TAFE, this is a government that is reinvesting in TAFE. Then, of course, there is what we are doing—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —to play an active role in higher education policy in this state by actively pursuing and supporting the process of—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni: One-third of staff in four years.

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —potential university amalgamation or the creation of a brand-new university here in South Australia. So whether it be a high school—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —whether it be a TAFE or whether it be what we are doing at university, this government has a serious program that will see more young people being able to have the skills that are required to participate in the naval shipbuilding workforce of tomorrow. That's what we are committed to. That's what we are delivering, and it will be central to the submission that we make to the federal government in its naval surface shipbuilding review.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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