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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-14 Daily Xml
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Defence Strategic Review

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Defence and Space Industries. What is the government doing to assist the South Australian defence industry to align with the priorities of the Defence Strategic Review? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON:The Australian recently reported that the defence industry is becoming increasingly frustrated over the Albanese government's Defence Strategic Review, warning the much-hyped military blueprint is vague, underfunded and becoming mired in bureaucracy.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (15:01): I haven't read the article to which the member refers, so I am uncertain of the context of that comment and so it's difficult to respond in a comprehensive way to that criticism. However, I can say the substance of the question was what are we doing to participate, essentially, to make sure that South Australians are able to participate in the opportunities offered by AUKUS that have arisen from the Defence Strategic Review.

The reality is that we have seized the opportunity presented by the proposition of building submarines here in South Australia, nuclear-powered submarines, and are doing everything in our power to make sure that that is facilitated smoothly, that local content will be part of the component chain as it builds up over time and, crucially, that it will be South Australian workers significantly who work at Osborne who are participating in making those submarines.

What we are dealing with, of course, is a project that doesn't start for some time and therefore the early works required are being put in place while we are still preparing for the time when the actual manufacturing commences here. One example is the offer of land swap in order to have some land coming to the South Australian government in exchange for the land required to help with creating Osborne.

There is an extensive program working not only through the supply chain with the Industry Capability Network but also through preparing in concert with the commonwealth for the training and skills academy to make sure that it is South Australians who get the lion's share of the work, who have the lion's share of the benefit. Let's not forget the involvement that the universities are having with the AUKUS proposition, already creating relationships with international universities, such as Flinders has been doing recently on nuclear-related studies, in order to prepare the training for people to be able to participate once it's time to build the submarines.

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