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

Today we found out that a second Spanish paper—Sabemos in Madrid—has reported 'El exito de Navantia desata la polemica en Australia', which translates to 'The success of Navantia unleashes controversy in Australia'. Too right there is controversy, because this government has sent 3,000 shipbuilding jobs to Spain. They have offshored our naval shipbuilding industry. And what do we find in this article? We find out that now, on the back of the supply ship contract, which is termed a 'megacontract' by the Spanish, they are after our frigates, they are after our patrol vessels and they are after every bit of naval shipbuilding work that South Australia might conceivably get.

So what we have here is a government which has betrayed the shipbuilding workforce of South Australia. On Friday I was down with the ASC workforce as they were looking down the barrel of unemployment. Those opposite talk about contracts, but they have sent them offshore.

The last part of this article is the disgraceful comment by Minister Johnson, saying that the ASC could not build a canoe. When we have this government talking down Australian industry, what else do you expect? (Time expired)