James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I always take the opportunity to speak on issues related to skills when I get the chance here, because in South Australia we've got an enormous skills challenge and an enormous skills opportunity in the defence sector. Since I was first elected, I have always spoken very proudly about the naval shipbuilding opportunities in my home city of Adelaide, which will bring thousands of jobs to the people of Adelaide—and many of them will live in my electorate for decades to come.

I always take the opportunity to commend decisions that are made to commit to a continuous naval shipbuilding sovereign capability in Australia, centred on Adelaide. Certainly, the previous government put in place the decisions necessary to commit to that, but we've had a very frightening development in the media recently in South Australia where a huge question mark now sits above the Hunter Class Frigate Program. We have been told through media sources about speculation, driven by the high commissioner in the United Kingdom, the Hon. Steven Smith, who wears that hat now but previously wore the hat of being the Defence Strategic Review co-author with Sir Angus Houston. He is reported to have said at an event in London, at a defence industry gathering, that the Hunter program will be scaled back dramatically, possibly to a mere four vessels. If that were to happen—this is the reported comments of High Commissioner Smith—those four vessels will most likely be built in the Govan shipyard in Scotland rather than at the Osborne shipyard in Adelaide.

The cataclysmic consequences of that, if true, are absolutely spectacular for the Adelaide economy and for skills and all the work we've done to prepare the trained workforce for that opportunity. I have followed the Hunter program since way before it was called the Hunter program. I was at the Australian Submarine Corp in 2015 when then minister Kevin Andrews came to Adelaide to outline that the Future Frigate Program, as we called it then, would absolutely be built in Adelaide and to outline the terms of the competitive evaluation program to select the design for that vessel. I went to the United Kingdom immediately after the announcement that the Type 26 BAE frigate was selected to be the future frigate design base. I was at the steel cutting for the first prototype block for the program. I was there for the opening of the assembly hall—the biggest building on the shipyard at Osbourne South, where the surface vessels are to be built into the future.

I've followed this program very closely for nearly ten years, and to hear a mere few weeks ago that it might be in jeopardy has sent an absolute shock through the defence industry and, indeed, through the broader Adelaide community—at the possibility that a program that we are counting on to support our ability to be a continuous naval shipbuilding sovereign capability nation is at risk.

The defence minister has had the opportunity to dismiss and rule out as preposterous the concept that we would be acquiring these vessels out of Scotland instead of building them in Adelaide. That should be a fairly straightforward thing to do if there were no chance of it being the case, and that has not happened. The defence minister's response to this is that he won't pre-empt any decisions that are going to be announced out of the surface fleet review and broader decisions that might be imminent, as he has committed to doing that next year in February. It wouldn't be pre-empting any decisions to rule something out that isn't a potential decision.

So what he is effectively doing is confirming that there are major changes afoot for the Hunter program. We don't know whether that means scaling it back to six vessels or four vessels. There is a lot of speculation that is concerning the people of South Australia, particularly the workers of South Australia—the ones that are out getting the training that is envisaged in this report from the minister that we are noting and debating right now. All those workers dutifully thought that they could take the government at its word when it said, 'Go out and get trained for a future in naval shipbuilding, because we're building nine frigates and we'll be building the Future Submarine program.' The nine frigates are in jeopardy, and we're hearing concerning rumours about other programs, particularly the offshore patrol vessels. The industry is in complete disbelief.

Last week, we had the Indo Pacific Sea Power Conference in Sydney. There was a very lacklustre engagement from the government but a very comprehensive engagement from the opposition. The shadow minister for defence and the shadow minister for defence industry were there. I have to say that I am well connected in defence industry circles, because of being an Adelaide MP and being very interested in the future of that sector for my home state, and the view in defence industry circles is one of great apprehension and fear about the imminent decisions that are going to massively scale back commitments that the industry thought it could rely on from this government. We have people being trained in Adelaide for jobs that have an enormous question mark on top of them.

We know that the surface fleet review has been done. We know that it's with government; the defence minister has confirmed that. So we had the Defence Strategic Review, and a recommendation to have a review, in that review. The review from the review has now been done, and no decision has been made or announced coming out of that. We know that, if nothing was changing and they were committed to the Hunter program in full, that would be a very straightforward thing to have confirmed immediately upon receipt of that review. Instead, what seems very clear is that that review recommends some significant changes, scaling back the Hunter Class Frigate Program. Building anything less than those nine vessels in Adelaide is an absolute breach of faith with all the people in the ecosystem that were counting on the government keeping its word.

If you're a young person in Adelaide currently training in a VET course for a skill that is absolutely required if we're building nine frigates in South Australia, and you find out that the government is about to change that and take that future opportunity away from you, that's absolutely appalling. This is a report about national planning for vocational education and training. Well, the national plan envisages continuous shipbuilding in South Australia. If that's about to change, next February or March, or whenever they come clean on their secret plans to make dramatic changes to shipbuilding commitments in Adelaide, then how can anyone rely on this plan or any other plan the government produces, when it's based on assumptions that are going to change and goalposts that are going to be shifted?

It's very tough times in the defence industry sector in South Australia right now, with the sword of Damocles hanging over these programs. We have enormous concern about the future nuclear submarine program and what is actually going to be happening in Adelaide versus what's going to be happening somewhere else. We know that billions of dollars of taxpayers' money are being invested into shipyards not in Australia. We know that's happening; that's been confirmed. And we're told that submarines, at some point in time, will be built in Adelaide. Well, we're losing a lot of confidence in this government in Adelaide. One wonders what's in store for the Hunter program and one wonders what's in store for future nuclear submarine construction in Adelaide. As things stand, this government is demonstrating that you can't count on its word on these things.

We call on the defence minister to make a very clear commitment to continuous naval shipbuilding and the Hunter Class Frigate Program, as it stands, being fully constructed in South Australia. It shouldn't be hard to make that commitment. He's been to Adelaide recently and refused to make that commitment, and we smell a rat here, frankly. I say to the defence minister: please, give the workers of South Australia—the young people training in VET et cetera—an early Christmas present and say, 'The jobs we promised you would exist into the future are guaranteed.'

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