Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have some questions to the government about naval shipbuilding in my home state and, in particular, the breaking up of ASC into three companies, one being for submarine sustainment, one being for the end of the air warfare destroyer contract and the last one being for naval infrastructure at Osborne. In particular, the creation of Australian Naval Infrastructure Pty Ltd, which I think is a government corporation, was announced yesterday by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Defence Industry. My question to the government would be: are they considering privatising any one of those companies or any part thereof? What is their long-term intention regarding the ownership of ASC?

I would also be very interested to hear the minister's views on not necessarily the liabilities to the Commonwealth but the risk to the Commonwealth from the creation of a naval shipbuilding workforce in South Australia. I note from the government's own Naval Shipbuilding Plan—in particular chapter 4 of that plan—that they identify workforce development as potentially a very large driver in cost and lost productivity if it is not done properly. I point the minister to paragraph 4.4 of that plan:

Leaving workforce development solely to industry could result in multiple different approaches to workforce skilling with little or no coordination at the national level, and little consideration to meeting the skilled workforce needs of the broader naval shipbuilding enterprise …

Paragraph 4.9 also outlines the potential cost, which would be to the Commonwealth at the end of the day, of failure to produce that workforce. That plan outlines further on, in paragraphs 4.16, 4.17 and 4.18, that in 2021 we will have to increase the naval shipbuilding staff to 3,600, with a strong concentration on skilled trades, particularly fabricators and welders but also electricians, carpenters and pipe welders. Further on, it talks about the workforce in construction for future frigates reaching a peak of 5,200 in 2026. It talks about the types of skills that are needed: general management and technical skills—again, structural steelworkers, shipwrights, outfitting, electricians, joiners, pipe welders, crane operators, stores, quality assurance and the like.

My point to the minister is that all of those occupations require significant training—four-year apprenticeships plus one year in advanced skills to be able to work in naval shipbuilding. The plan goes on to talk about rehiring naval shipbuilding workers. I know one electrician who has left the shipyards—he has been made redundant. He has had two jobs since that time, both of them fairly intermittent. His skills are declining. There is obviously a problem there. If people leave the shipyards, they are obviously going to need some further training when they go back. There is some intimation that we might be able to source a workforce from the mining, oil and gas production industries.

Finally, on the automotive manufacturing industry, most of the people exiting the automotive industry from Holden might be very skilled individuals, but not many of them are skilled tradespeople. They are production line workers. Potentially they could be retrained, but it would take a four-year apprenticeship. It would seem to me that there are significant risks to the Commonwealth in a failure to have an available workforce from 2021. I am wondering what the government is doing about the creation of that workforce. Interestingly, I note that the government has undertaken to meet with the ACTU. I would be interested to know if that has been done—with all of the relevant unions—to help create a naval shipbuilding workforce. Can the minister enlighten the House as to what is happening in terms of privatisation and what is happening in terms of the workforce? My great fear is that we will turn up in 2021 and this workforce will not have materialised out of thin air, and the government will be scratching its head as to how to drive productivity and limit risk in the shipyards. (Time expired)

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