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

It was my great pleasure to be invited by British Aerospace to attend on Friday 18 December a great milestone in the Hunter class frigate program, the future frigates for the Royal Australian Navy: the first cutting of steel at the new Osborne South shipyard to construct the prototype blocks that over the next 12 months or so will be used to prove up the shipyard in order to commence the first-of-class frigate, which hopefully will commence in about 12 months time and possibly even later this year. We hoped this milestone would be reached in 2020. Obviously, COVID led some to believe that there could be delays. That would have been understandable but disappointing. Thankfully, it wasn't the case. I'd like to start by paying great tribute to Craig Lockhart and the team at the BAE Osborne South yard for meeting that milestone. It's really important that this project stays on track, and of course it has.

It was a very impressive experience to share with them. I think most experienced shipbuilders, when they've gone to that yard, have said that in many ways it's the most technologically advanced on the planet. Certainly the sister shipyard in Govan, Scotland, which I had the good fortune to visit some years ago—many of the Scottish shipbuilders who have come down to be part of the Type 26 program don't want to leave. They can't believe the luck of those working on this program in Australia to have such a modern shipyard built by Australian Naval Infrastructure, a government company that is also building the Osborne North yard for the submarine program.

The milestone was very significant. I think that we will see the most technologically advanced, capable, on time, on budget program the Royal Australian Navy has ever received, all being built not far from my electorate in Adelaide. Walking among and talking with a lot of the workforce there, I found that nearly half of them seem to be constituents from my electorate of Sturt. This program is providing employment opportunities across metropolitan Adelaide and across the nation. A lot of companies from around Australia are involved in the supply chain. This $35 billion program is part of a $90 billion shipbuilding undertaking in my home city of Adelaide for decades to come. It's exciting. We're engaging with school groups and the training sector to make sure that the workforce we need is going to be there. There will be thousands of jobs coming through this program and others. It was great to be there and share in that milestone. I look forward to many more milestones with BAE into the future, as I'm a great supporter of the program and the industry capability that they are developing.