John Madigan (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Chair. Before I address the amendments to the Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2014) Bill 2014 moved by Senator Conroy I would first like to state that I was not aware nor do I condone the way in which this bill has come about for debate this evening. However, many in the community will not be aware of the stunt that was pulled before and therefore I would like to briefly outline why I do support the amendments.

Over the past year or so the government has been continually undermining and badmouthing Australia's submarine and shipbuilding capability. This amendment seeks to right a wrong. It seeks to require that a competitive tender process takes place to ensure that Australian industry is given the opportunity to compete to build the new submarines. Too often it is the case that we relate undesirable aspects of our naval building and maintenance projects within the industry. Let us not forget that many of the troublesome areas which we associate with the shipbuilding-sub industry did not come about due to poor standards of Australian workers but rather faulty or troublesome equipment purchased from overseas. The fact of the matter is that we have not heard so far, in the toing and froing of this debate, anything about the actual hulls failing. It is the propulsion systems, amongst other things, that have given trouble.

The fact of the matter is that the Collins class submarine project was one of the most ambitious technical and manufacturing projects ever undertaken in this country. If we look at some of the other countries in this space, such as Germany and Japan, they have experience in this area going back around 100 years. Both sides need to acknowledge the fact that Australia built submarines from ground zero. That delivered to Australia great social, economic and technological outcomes. There is no other country in the world that has done what we did. We cannot have one toe in the water and four toes out of the water. It is all toes in or no toes in. What it takes to build submarines, and to build submarines competitively, in this country is to stop the political bickering. It takes the unions, the workers, the opposition and the government all working together. We have to make a decision in this place to build the best conventionally powered submarine that will serve Australia's national interests and build on the skills and capabilities of our manufacturing industry in this country. This is beyond political bickering, and it is about time we acknowledged some of the great technological and industrial capability that has been developed in this country in such a short time against competitors around the world who, as I said, have been building subs for close to 100 years or more.