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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-07-02 Daily Xml
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Defence Shipbuilding

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: He'll be found wanting on this one too, I suspect.

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS: I suspect not. Minister, are there any Liberals standing up for manufacturing in South Australia?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:55): I thank the honourable member for his very, very important question. Yes, I have an answer to that question. Although there are many Liberals in South Australia, there is very clearly only one correct answer to this question. The only Liberal in South Australia supporting manufacturing is the Independent Liberal, the member for Waite, minister Hamilton-Smith—the Independent Liberal. The Independent Liberal, the member for Waite, has achieved much during his time as Minister for Investment and Trade, Minister for Defence Industries and Minister for Veterans Affairs.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Tell me what he's done.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The Hon. David Ridgway says, 'Tell me what he's done'. I will tell him what he's done: he's done a lot.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister has the floor. He wants to answer that very important question. Minister, go for it.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I am more than happy to tell the temporary Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council what he has done.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Twelve months ago industry was saying that the manufacture of Australia's next fleet of submarines, Australia's largest ever defence procurement, would be done in Japan, and that was a done deal. Without a strong public campaign from the Premier of this state and the Minister for Defence Industries, it is very likely the commonwealth government would already have sent this multi-billion dollar project offshore. There are options. There are some very good, sensible options for building these submarines in Australia. As minister Hamilton-Smith said earlier this year in another place of German shipbuilder TKMS, and the French industrial group TCNS:

Both shipbuilders express their willingness to embrace the Australian defence industry and to build in Australia. Both companies have proposed plans for an in-country build of Australia's future submarines as our international design partners. During our meetings we conveyed the South Australian government's clear commitment and support to the Australian defence industry, and we offered our assistance in securing an Australian built submarine solution by either of those companies.

Minister Hamilton-Smith goes on to say:

Compared to the international shipyards of Europe, there's a vastly different level of confidence in Australia's shipbuilding capacity than there is in the shadowy corridors of Canberra.

The shadowy corridors of Canberra! He continues:

The Liberal federal government does not appreciate that the investment of large global defence companies plays a vital role in our current shipbuilding strategy, the jobs they provide to Australian workers and the flow-on business it provides to our SME community.

Minister Hamilton-Smith went on to say:

I can an assure the house, however, that while our federal government appears to have little confidence in the Australian defence industry to build our future for ships and submarines, the century-old icons of European shipbuilding have admired us from afar. They express their great desire to expand their interests here, but could not commit until the federal government gave industry a clear commitment to the future of Naval shipbuilding.

Minister Hamilton-Smith has also developed close relationships with global engineering defence companies, like Kellogg, Brown and Root, Singapore Technologies Marine, Rheinmetall Defence, and Boeing, to name just a few.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I will continue to answer the Hon. David Ridgway's question about 'What has he done?' But wait, there's more—there is more that he has done! He has developed and is renewing trade strategies for South-East Asia and India. He does a lot on trade missions—some of his best work is done on trade missions.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Stephens!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Some of his best work is done on trade missions.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Stephens must try to contain himself, please. Our poor old friends up there from Save the Rehab will be horrified at your behaviour—horrified!

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Can we ask them what they think about the member for Waite?

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Looks like 10 per cent to me. Minister, please continue with your answer.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Thank you, Mr President. I might have had my hemp pants on yesterday, but the Hon. Terry Stephens has his angry pants on today. Under the stewardship—

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Stephens, the sooner you sit back and let him finish his answer, the sooner he will have finished with his answer and we can get on to the next question.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Stephens, I have given a ruling to sit back and let him speak in silence. I think you've been around long enough and you are above that. Let him speak.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Thank you, Mr President. I appreciate my very good friend, the Hon. Terry Stephens.

The PRESIDENT: Don't stir up the Hon. Mr Stephens; just get on and do your answer.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: We both love Golden North ice creams, Mr President. I had a drink with him on Saturday night, in fact, and was at a dinner with him in Whyalla a couple of months ago. We're very good mates. I hope that doesn't ruin your chances of progressing straight in front of you to deputy leader here. However, it is a great audition as well, and you are blossoming like a beautiful flower as well in your role, in your auditioning, like a rainbow in the morning.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: What's that?

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: He doesn't look like me at all. That's what you said about me yesterday.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: But wait, there's even more that the minister has done. There's even more in answer to the questions the Hon. David Ridgway has asked; there's even more.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Yes, you want to know what he's done and I am telling you. So listen; I'll tell you what he's done. Under the stewardship of the very good minister, minister Hamilton-Smith, we saw the largest ever South Australian trade mission—256 delegates to China. Minister Hamilton-Smith also led a South Australian trade delegation to Shandong, a province with a $1 trillion economy and a growth rate in excess of 8 per cent.

As a result of the economic opportunities minister Hamilton-Smith has helped to explore, we've seen things such as Seppeltsfield signing a deal for 1.5 million litres of premium wine per annum, Bellco signing a $12 million trade and investment deal to sell primary produce, and Cleanseas signing their first ever bluefin tuna deal to China worth $1 million. These are some of the things the minister has helped to do.

And there's even more. Next month, minister Hamilton-Smith will take more than 45 business delegates to India and South-East Asia. Led by minister Hamilton-Smith, the Export Partnership Program has been reformed and endorsed by Business SA, leading to a massive cash injection for businesses looking to expand their export market activity.

Largely as a result of minister Hamilton-Smith's work, there has been a 44 per cent growth in business migrants, with 187 state nominations, up from 130 in the past year, including 46 significant investors and 67 business talent visa applications. The Department of State Development estimates the outcome made by the business migration stream will be a $167 million investment and will lead to the creation of 369 jobs in the economy.

Minister Hamilton-Smith has also established a new investment agency, with a $15 million bid fund over the next two years. While minister Hamilton-Smith has been doing great work advocating for the manufacturing and defence capacities in South Australia, the Liberal Party continues to knock the industry. The Liberal Party continues to knock the local industry—like the member for Unley's baffling, misguided tweet against our automotive sector and having a go at Greg Combet, a person who is trying to help our automotive sector, last week.

I don't know if it's a cyber security issue and someone has got his password and has taken over his Twitter account. Except for a keen understanding of irony, that is the only explanation for some of the tweets we've seen from the member for Unley. Quite frankly, South Australia—

The PRESIDENT: Order! Point of order, the Hon. Mr Dawkins.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: The minister has been on his feet for more than nine minutes in answering this question, sir, and I ask you to bring him to a conclusion.

The PRESIDENT: The honourable minister, can you get to the crux of your answer, so we can get on with the next question?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I will, but I do note that more than half of that time has been waiting for the interjections to subside, and I am fully answering some of the questions that the Hon. David Ridgway wanted me to answer: 'What has he done?' We are fortunate to have Greg Combet chairing the Automotive Transformation Taskforce. He has done some great work and has a great deal of experience in this area.

Whilst talking about Greg Combet, earlier this week, the Hon. Robert Brokenshire asked for scientific evidence that under a federal Labor government Holden would have continued to manufacture cars in the future in South Australia. I am no 'science-tician' but I know evidence can be found in books like Greg Combet's book The Fights of my Life first published in 2014—

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: What's a 'science-tician'?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: What's that?

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: You said 'science-tician'.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: No, scientist. Greg Combet's book The Fights of my Life, first published in 2014, and I can quote briefly from the—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I won't quote from the book. I am happy to table the book if I quote from it. I won't table the quote, but Greg Combet makes it very, very clear that if Labor had been returned to government, our policies would have seen Holden stay manufacturing in South Australia. I know it is just the person who was in charge of the industry from the federal government; I know that is all that is: the one person who would know about it, and I know that's not a proper randomised controlled, repeatable, double-blind, peer-reviewed, scientific study, but that's pretty good evidence. So it is a fact, it may well be—

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order.

The PRESIDENT: Point of order, Hon. Mr Dawkins.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: We are now past 11 minutes in the answer to this question, and I ask you to bring the minister to a conclusion.

The PRESIDENT: Minister, I think you have had enough time. Would you please get to the conclusion of your answer?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Mr President, I will finish by saying: minister Hamilton-Smith is a good egg. He's done a lot for South Australia, and he is the only Liberal fighting for jobs in this state.

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