Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. What job opportunities will the AUKUS submarine agreement provide and how will the Albanese Labor government support workers to access these opportunities?

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for her question and her passion and interest in this issue. The truth is that the AUKUS pillar 1 announcement will produce around 20,000 high-paying, secure jobs for Australians, and they'll be spread throughout the entire nation. In Adelaide, for example, we'll see 4,000 jobs building the construction yard and another up to 5,500 jobs building the actual submarines—importantly, twice the amount that would have been allocated for building the Attack-class submarines. In Western Australia we'll see 3,000 jobs upgrading HMAS Stirling and another 500 jobs sustaining Submarine Rotational Force—West. Importantly, across both those great states we'll see 2,500 jobs sustaining our Virginia-class and then SSN-AUKUS submarines—all good-paying, secure jobs. Importantly, we'll see across the entire nation 1,900 scientists, engineers and technicians employed. This is probably the greatest new demand for scientists this country has seen in a long time. We'll also see 4,500 jobs across Navy and Defence. These job figures, the 20,000 jobs we're talking about, don't even include the supply chains—companies like Thales in Rydalmere, who could supply sonar components, and Pacific Marine Batteries supplying batteries out of Osborne. All great jobs, all driven by this nation-building visionary announcement by the Albanese Labor government.

I'm asked how will we find the workers for these jobs. That's a really important question. The answer is simple: we will train them. We will train young Australians for these jobs, and it starts now. That's why we've allocated $6 billion over the next four years to start that effort and $30 billion over the life of the program to train young Australians. An apprentice starting their training tomorrow could work their entire career in this industry, helping safeguard the nation. We've committed to a skills academy in Adelaide that will train hundreds of apprentices each and every year, and we're also supporting science and engineering degrees. We're already supporting over 50 Australians in new specialised courses in the United States and the United Kingdom and helping establish new tertiary courses in nuclear engineering at UNSW and nuclear science at ANU. This is all critical to delivering the greatest capability uplift the Australian Defence Force has seen, as well as modernising our defence and manufacturing industries.

This is an investment in the young people of Australia to help defend this nation. I'm so proud to be part of a government that's delivering this—20,000 jobs that will secure their future and help secure the security of the nation going forward.