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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-02-20 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Hunter Class Frigate Program

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): My question is to the Premier. What assurances has the Premier received from the Prime Minister that South Australia won't be disadvantaged due to the reduction in scope of the Hunter class shipbuilding program?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:22): There is no reduction in scope to continuous shipbuilding here in South Australia, only a commitment to it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: It's interesting: let's think about for a moment the Leader of the Opposition's line of questioning. What the Leader of the Opposition is seeking to tell the South Australian people is that he knows what the Navy needs better than the Navy themselves.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What the Leader of the Opposition—

The SPEAKER: Premier, there is a point of order which I am bound to hear immediately.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will come to order. The member for Morialta, on a point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Standing order 98, sir: this is a very clear form of debate.

The SPEAKER: It is early in the Premier's answer. Some context is permissible. As well, I extend some latitude to the Premier, because he is the Premier, and also to the leader, but I will listen carefully.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We live in strategically significant times. I think the Defence Strategic Review made it clear that we are in the most challenging geopolitical strategic circumstances that our country has faced since World War II. That means that we make decisions around our Navy, our Navy's capabilities, consistent with protecting our nation's sovereignty during those times. That means there are big calls to be made around what capabilities the Navy has—nuclear submarines, for instance, but also the surface ships as well.

Today, we've got a decision that means we have anti-submarine warfare tier 1 surface ships being built at Osborne that take us into the early 2040s. The commonwealth, following the best advice of the Navy, will make a decision around the technology and the capabilities of the tier 1 surface ships that follow. I think it would be wise for all of us just to try to remove the partisan politics.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: I am not making a partisan point against the opposition. If we remove the noise for just a moment and we think to ourselves, 'Do we want to be building ships that actually serve the purpose of protecting the nation's sovereignty?', clearly the answer is yes. Then we have to make sure that we are providing the latitude and the confidence to the key decision-makers to make decisions that are consistent with that interest. The people who are best placed to do that are the Navy themselves.

We want the Navy making decisions about the capabilities the Navy needs to keep us safe, which means when we are thinking about decisions that take us beyond the 2040s we want to provide them the flexibility to make those decisions in due time. Today, we get the six anti-submarine warfare surface ships that take us through to the early 2040s, later this decade the commonwealth will start designing the Hobart class replacement and then, of course, the final contract to be awarded in 2035 with construction on that vessel to start in the early 2040s.

Now for the first time, since the Howard government committed to the AWDs in the early 2000s, we've actually got a program that doesn't just think about the surface ships in front of us today but the ones that come after that, and then hopefully the ones that come after that. It's actually a long-term program, and it's a long-term program consistent with the Navy's and our country's security interests. It's a long-term program that provides us the continuous build that we desperately need and avoids the valley of death, which I think we all want to make sure never happens again. Today, that is what we set in train.

Of course, while its independent and separate from SSN-AUKUS, it is important in terms of underpinning the confidence that we need the potential workforce or the future workforce to have to commit themselves to this program at large. When it's all done and dusted, the simple fact of the matter is this: down at Osborne the workforce is about to double; ships are now going to be constructed and built, and we anticipate an announcement on SSN-AUKUS in the not-to-distant future. That combined means our state's capacity to contribute to this nation-building effort is assured. We can take confidence in that and we invite young people around the state to commit themselves to that endeavour.

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