Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Will the minister outline for the House how the Morrison government is keeping Australians safe by delivering on its commitments to back Australian defence industry? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Stirling for his question. How we ever follow that, I'm not quite sure, but I really would like to acknowledge his performance within the Australian Defence Force and also his strong passion for the defence industry.

Because of a strong economy and the Morrison government's strong budget management, we are keeping Australians safe by delivering on our commitment to the defence industry and also delivering for our defence forces. Last week, the Prime Minister and I had the great pleasure of visiting RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory, where we announced that our government will invest some $1.1 billion in the base, which is on top of the $495 million that we've already invested in the new air combat capability infrastructure at the base.

As part of that investment, $242 million in work flowed into the Northern Territory community, with 38 local companies sharing in some 64 per cent of the work. This is good news for the Territory. That's Territorian businesses being able to test their capability and Territorian businesses being able to grow their capability, and over 300 Aussie jobs will be created in the next phase of the project.

The Prime Minister and I had the great pleasure of seeing firsthand the quality of work being undertaken at the base by local Katherine contractors like Mr Jeff Usher from Custom Cabinets, who supplied the benchtops, the cabinets and custom joinery during the upgrade. I'd also like to acknowledge and commend Savanna Solutions, who provided services including developing opportunities for Indigenous businesses to be a part of this program. I think it's worth mentioning that some $27 million was invested in local Indigenous businesses for this $495 million investment.

For the next $1.1 billion phase, the managing contractor expects that the local content will actually exceed 70 per cent. So this is great news for Territorian businesses and great news for Territorian construction industry and defence industry, but, more importantly, great news for developing new jobs in the Northern Territory.

When you compare that to the record of those opposite, I think it's pretty clear that we on this side are backing defence industry. In Labor's six years of office, defence spending was cut by $18 billion, bringing the defence budget to its lowest level since World War II.

Our government has spent the last six years reversing that neglect to our Australian defence industry. We are investing a record $200 billion in our defence capability, which will create more jobs and more opportunities for our Australian defence industries.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again to the Minister for Defence Industry. Can the minister explain why she counts the work of a French language school, Adelaide's Alliance Francaise, as 'Australian industry content' for the future submarines?

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. As I said in a previous answer, our $50 billion investment in the Future Submarine program has wide economic benefits. This includes a variety of businesses and organisations that were mentioned by the member opposite. We know some of those businesses will contribute to the capability of this program, but all will receive investment under this program. What we do know is that this supports a raft of small- and medium-sized businesses, supporting jobs.

What we're focused on on this side of the House is we're backing the growth of Australian jobs.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

We're going to deliver on that $200 billion that we've committed to determine our defence capability.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member fore Moreton will leave the House.

The member for Moreton then left the chamber.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That includes developing and creating 57 new vessels built in Australia by Australians using Australian steel. We are committed to delivering the submarine program on time, on budget and on spec.