Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday, 23 May this year I joined 6,000 other people at Techport in Adelaide's northern suburbs to watch the launch of the first of three destroyers being built as part of Australia's air warfare destroyer program. After more than 10 years, the launch of the Hobart was the culmination of the hard work of more than 3,000 Australians. As a South Australian I was proud to be there amongst so many of the local workers and their families as they celebrated the transition of the ship from the hardstand to the water. After successfully building one of the most complex projects of its type in Australian history, an enormous amount of pride was evident from those who worked on the project. Thousands of hours of work had gone into the Hobart, and its launch was truly a momentous occasion in Adelaide. Onlookers and the general public who had also come to witness this event were equally proud and impressed that such a sophisticated and vital piece of defence capability had been built in my home state and my home city.

Unfortunately, a feeling of uncertainty lingered over the event. At the event I spoke to numerous workers and business representatives who were involved in the Hobart build directly and also through supply chain industries. As proud as they were to be at the launch and as proud as they were of their contributions to this magnificent project, their thoughts had already, of course, turned to what would happen to them in the future.

The uncertainty and the insecurity, which the Abbott government has inflicted on our shipbuilding industry and related supply-chain industries, leave thousands of Australians on edge, not knowing what the future holds for them. Without a decision from the government about the future of the submarine project and with increasing speculation about what might be or might not be in the much awaited defence white paper, Australia shipbuilding industry will continue to be left hanging perilously. Just last month we saw 120 or so contractors fired from Adelaide's ASC without warning—they were told on a Friday afternoon that they would no longer be required on the Monday because of the absence of work. In that same week BAE in Williamstown was forced to let go of 80 workers, again because of the lack of work and we heard that last week BAE Systems advised that it would not be tendering for the upcoming Pacific patrol boats program, due to the government's unfeasible time lines for that project. Earlier this year the shipbuilder Forgacs in Newcastle reduced its workforce by 20 per cent, and there are news reports today of a further 160 job losses to come in Newcastle. The toll is rising; every day of inaction means more job losses in this vital industry across our country. Of course, our thoughts are with the workers, who are losing their jobs, with their families and with the businesses that have worked so hard to support shipbuilding and defence industries and that are now facing the great risk of being unable to continue.

The government needs to act and it needs to act now. We cannot continue to lose jobs, shipyards and potentially destroy entire industries as a result of the government's indecisiveness. Even Mr Tony Shepherd—Mr Tony Abbott's captain's pick to head up his own Commission of Audit—has come out declaring that the shipbuilding industry should remain on our shores and saying that the government should follow the well-proven risk-reduction path of defence procurement that was established throughout the construction of the Anzac frigates and the Collins-class submarines. Mr Abbott should listen to Mr Shepherd and he should put the interests of all Australians first. The launch of the Hobart proved that we had the skills and the capacity, as well as the workforce and some of the most advanced engineering techniques to complete projects, including the future submarine project, right here onshore in Australia.

Rather than implementing a farcical, competitive evaluation process to provide cover for decisions that he has already made, Mr Abbott should put faith in the highly-skilled professional shipbuilding capacity that we have here at home. To make matters worse, it seems as though every time I open a newspaper there is another thought bubble from the government about their plans for the industry. Just this week, I was surprised to read that there is a possibility that the government may scale back the build of new submarines from 12 to eight. This would mean even fewer jobs, less opportunities and less certainty for industry, not to mention the impact on our Defence capabilities. After the announcement in May that Japan would participate in the sham of the competitive evaluation process, earlier this month Defence minister Kevin Andrews inspected Japan's defence facilities. These signs are ominous; they are signs that Mr Abbott is going to ignore his chief advisers and ignore the pleas of thousands of Australians and award the future submarine program to Japan. He has even been ignoring advice from his own senators. Just last week in this place Senator Fawcett dispelled the government's own lies that the government cannot build ships competitively. He put on record that Australia needs a viable shipbuilding industry. In fact Senator Fawcett said:

We have and can continue to build the best ships at the best price, but it will take a long-term bipartisan approach.

Fair enough.

Labor wholeheartedly supports Australian shipbuilding and Australian Defence industries. We have a credible plan to protect our national strategic interests and, even more so in this time of economic uncertainty, we have plans to protect Australian jobs and in particular Australian manufacturing jobs. The launch of the Hobart proved that we do have a highly qualified workforce and that we should use that workforce to build the submarines of the future. Mr Abbott needs to wake up and realise that we need to protect the future of Australian shipbuilding and submarine industry before it is too late.