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

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Will the minister please outline to the House how the Australia-US defence alliance is creating a stronger partnership between our defence industries so that our ADF has the capability it needs to keep Australia safe and secure?

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

I thank the member for Sturt and acknowledge and thank him for his passion and interest in South Australia's defence industry, especially that world-leading shipbuilding industry. I thank him so much.

Today we celebrate our longstanding and deep friendship with the United States—70 years of the ANZUS treaty. It is an unbreakable bond that has reached new heights, especially between our two defence industries. We have joined Lockheed Martin in the US to deliver the most advanced war-fighting aircraft in the world, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Fifty Australian companies share in some $2.7 billion worth of work in this program, with Australian-made parts on every F-35 globally. Marand in Melbourne manufactures the vertical tails, Ferra engineering in Brisbane manufactures the weapons adapters and Cablex in Melbourne manufactures the cabling.

I had the great pleasure of witnessing this partnership in action firsthand when I visited the F-35 production line in Dallas, Texas, some two years ago. It really was a very proud moment to see those very shiny, upright Marand vertical tails on every F-35 on the assembly line. Australian workers and defence personnel train and work in the US with their American colleagues in the F-35 program, creating new skills to operate and to maintain these aircraft at home and also abroad.

When I went to the US I went with one goal in mind, and that was to win more F-35 work for the Australian defence industry, and I'm proud that we succeeded, with Western Sydney based Quickstep winning more manufacturing work because of that visit. Only last year, the Prime Minister and I announced that the first military aircraft to be designed and built in Australia in more than 50 years had been rolled out in partnership with Boeing. I'm talking about the Loyal Wingman. The development of this aircraft in Australia is Boeing's largest investment in unmanned aircraft outside of the United States, and we should be incredibly proud of that. This will ensure our two countries have a leading edge in the field of autonomous war-fighting capabilities. A bit closer to home, here in Canberra, CEA has developed the world's most advanced radar systems for defence capabilities, with exports to the US of that particular capability.

ANZUS has taken our alliance to new levels. This is creating a much stronger bond between our two countries. As the Minister for Defence Industry, I'm very focused on bringing us even closer together. No-one can say with any certainty what the future threats are to the security of this country, but what is clear is that a defence industry partnership with the US ensures that our men and women in uniform have what they need to keep us safe and secure.

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

The minister's time has concluded. I call the member for Makin.