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

Before some of these contributions get too long in the tooth, I might respond to my colleagues the member for Grey and the member for Fisher on the issues that they raised and then return to the member for Corio, since we do have a full hour to do this consideration in detail.

I thank the member for Grey for his contribution and his questions about the government's defence industry and defence projects. I was actually the minister for industry when the Adelaide to Tarcoola rail line was brought forward five years, ensuring that the steelworks at Whyalla had a $70 million to $75 million contract on their books, which really assisted them a great deal to stay open. I was also the minister who put extra tariffs on Taiwanese, South Korean and Chinese steel businesses that were deemed to be dumping steel in Australia, in order to protect and assist the Whyalla steelworks. I'm delighted that Sanjeev Gupta and Liberty OneSteel have taken over that steelworks. It means there is a real future for the Whyalla steelworks. I think Mr Gupta is going to invest very considerably in Whyalla, not just in the steelworks. His Liberty House Group, I think, will do quite a lot of really important energy production in that part of South Australia as well, which will assist the whole economy of that region.

The member for Grey asked about a couple of important issues for him, including about the steel that is going to be used in the naval shipbuilding projects. I can assure him that the steel for the Pacific patrol boats, the offshore patrol vessels and the future frigates can quite readily be provided by the Whyalla steelworks. They have provided steel before for this kind of activity and they will be able to take part in that contract. Of course, BlueScope Steel in Wollongong also has capabilities around steel production, and it too would want to be taking part, I'm sure, in the competition to provide steel for the Pacific patrol boats, offshore patrol vessels and future frigates.

With regard to the steel for the 12 submarines, which is much more complicated—it is a different kind of steel, because obviously it has to exist well below the surface of the water and therefore requires certain kinds of specifications—I can tell the member for Grey that Naval Group have entered into a contract with Bisalloy steel in Wollongong, to see if they can provide the very important and difficult steel for submarines. So we are doing everything in our capabilities to ensure that the steel in these ships is sourced in Australia.

None of that, of course, would have happened if the Labor government had remained in power. The last ship that would have been built in Australia would have been the air warfare destroyer HMAS Sydney. I was present at its commissioning by the Navy only a month or so ago. That would have been the last ship built in an Australian shipyard for the Navy. Happily, because of the government's naval shipbuilding project, we will be building 54 vessels: 21 for our Pacific neighbours, 12 offshore patrol vessels for the Navy, nine future frigates—we'll be deciding very soon who the successful tenderer will be—and the 12 submarines as well.

In terms of progress for Whyalla and for Wollongong, in terms of steel for the ships and potentially for the submarines, that is very much on track. The member for Grey also asked about the Naval Shipbuilding College. We have awarded the successful tender for the Naval Shipbuilding College to Huntington Ingalls Industries and Kellogg Brown & Root. They are the head of the consortium that is right now working to create the Naval Shipbuilding College. It is made up of TAFEs, like TAFE SA and South Metropolitan TAFE in Henderson in Perth, and universities like the University of New South Wales, RMIT University in Melbourne, Curtin University in Perth, the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia and Flinders University. There's a large consortium that is providing the services. It's a hub-and-spoke approach. It is on schedule, and it will mean that the Naval Shipbuilding College, in its first iteration, will source students in those institutions, which will then become part of the naval ship building project.

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