Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Will the minister update the House on how the Morrison government's plan for a stronger defence industry is creating jobs and supporting small businesses as we come back from COVID-19, including in my electorate of North Sydney?

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

I thank the member for North Sydney for his question and note his interest in and passion for defence industry and also his support for the ADF in his electorate. Our government is investing $270 billion over the next decade in our defence capability.

Yesterday the member for North Sydney and I had the great pleasure to announce that our government had awarded a contract to Indigenous company Barpa, which was a $25 million contract, to deliver incredibly important infrastructure upgrades to HMAS Waterhen, which is in the member's electorate. Local businesses in the North Sydney area are set to reap the benefits from this contract, with some 85 per cent of the work to go to local businesses in that area. This means jobs are secured in the North Sydney area, and the wheels of defence industry will continue to turn, especially during these difficult COVID times. Not only that, the member for Nicholls and I yesterday had the great pleasure to announce that we were awarding a $45 million contract to upgrade the Puckapunyal training area in the member's electorate, with 97 per cent of the work to go to local businesses and up to 80 local jobs being created by this contract. We are very proud that Australian businesses which are local to defence bases are getting these opportunities, and it's during these COVID times that we're particularly proud of that.

We're not just delivering first-class infrastructure to our ADF bases. Over the next two years the government is investing $39 million through our Skilling Australia's Defence Industry grants program. We've awarded $380 million to Australian businesses through our Defence Innovation Hub. Importantly, 80 per cent of these contracts have gone to Australian SMEs. Only last week I announced our government's latest round for the sovereign industrial capability grant program. In the last round there was a total of $8 million and it went to 11 different companies. I thought it would be interesting for the House to understand the breadth of that round and how we spread it around. The first one I want to mention is EPE, which is a company based in Queensland. It received a grant of $1.4 million for the development of a world-leading specialised unmanned system. Novafast International, based in South Australia, received a grant for $1.36 million. This is to support the acquisition and installation of new robotics equipment. Varley Rafael Australia, based in Victoria, received a grant of $183,000 with respect to their expansion of the current guided missiles capability. Finally, HTA Group, which is based across New South Wales and Victoria, received a grant for just over a million dollars to support the acquisition and installation of specialised hardening equipment. (Time expired)