Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Corio says that the current government has not got the confidence in Australian defence industry capability, and yet we are the government that has made all the decisions in the last three years to build Australian defence industry capability. When his party was in government, they had so little confidence in the Australian industry they made not one decision to build anything here in Australia—not one decision to build a navy ship here in Australia. So if any political party has no confidence in Australian defence industry, it is obviously the Labor Party. If the Labor Party believed that the Australian industry had the capability to deliver, they would have made those decisions.

Obviously, the member for Corio's position does not stack up. This is the government that in three years has taken Australian defence industry from the very sad state it was under the Labor Party into having an incredibly bright future, where we are putting behind that the push of $195 billion of spending to build defence industry capability over the next 10 years.

The member for Corio asked me the most extraordinary question about the submarines, as though the Labor Party has any credibility at all on submarine policy in this country. Apart from the Beazley Defence ministry and the Hawke government making the initial decision to build the Collins class submarines, ever since then the Labor Party's record on submarine building in Australia has been worse than woeful. It has done vandalism to the Australian shipbuilding industry. If they seriously believed that they had any credibility on submarine building, why didn't they make a decision in that six-year period of government under Rudd and Gillard to sustain a shipbuilding industry—a submarine building industry— into the future? They totally neglected to do so.

So that is why we when we came to office—first David Johnson and then Kevin Andrews and now Marise Payne and I—have had to put back the pieces to build a submarine industry in this country. We have signed the DCNS contract to design the Australianised version of the Shortfin Barracuda—something that the Labor Party never even tried to do. It was this government that initiated the competitive evaluation process; the Labor Party never even considered doing so. That is why 12 submarines will be built in Adelaide at Osborne North. That is an absolute commitment that we have made which will deliver jobs, investment and growth in the economy, not just in South Australia but across Australia, because, of course, many Australian businesses will take part in that project. It will be a real boon to our economy. I am sure the Labor Party supports it—a $50 billion program on just the building part of the program will make a tremendous difference to the Australian economy.

So, yes, I can absolutely guarantee that all 12 submarines will be built at Osborne North in Adelaide in the great state of South Australia. The member for Corio also asked me about a 90 per cent figure. I have never said that 90 per cent of the submarine build would be done in Adelaide. That was a statement made by Sean Costello, the chief executive officer of DCNS in Australia. He made that statement on the radio, and I think you will find, if you return to any of my comments that I have made on this subject, that every time I have referenced that figure I have said the DCNS themselves say 90 per cent will be done in Australia. Therefore it is not my figure; it is DCNS's figure and Sean Costello's figure.

I think that answers your questions. I thought you were going to ask me about the life cycle of the Collins class submarine and an assurance that there is no capability gap. You did not ask me that, but I will answer it anyway. It would have been an interesting question for you to have asked. Of course, the government is taking the measures necessary to ensure that there is no capability gap between the Collins class submarine and the Australianised Shortfin Barracuda and we will be monitoring all the time to ensure that the schedule remains on track for DCNS. That is why we have already announced that Lockheed Martin will be the combat system integrator—they won that process. We announced that about two or three weeks ago. We are getting on with the job. If it ever appears at any point that that will not be the case, the government will take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that there is no capability gap.

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