Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering critical defence capability at the same time as creating jobs for Australians? How does this compare to what the government inherited?

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

I thank the member for Spence for his question and his strong advocacy for defence industry and jobs in his electorate. Delivering for Australians today and setting Australians up for a more secure future is the government's top priority, and a critical part of that is building our sovereign defence industry so that we can produce the capabilities we need to keep us safe right here at home. I'm pleased to inform the House that, since coming to government, defence industry jobs in SA have increased by 40 per cent—high-skilled jobs in trades, engineering and research, supporting the development of world-leading capabilities, building bright futures for South Australian families and supporting A Future Made in Australia.

This future is even brighter this week after the announcement of the biggest defence export deal ever with a $2½ billion deal to sell the JORN radar to Canada. This will support a thousand jobs, with many of them in the member for Spence's electorate. But our investment is not just limited to SA. We've also signed a $1 billion export deal to sell Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles to Germany, supporting over a thousand direct and indirect jobs, mostly in your electorate, Mr Speaker. And there is $7 billion we're putting into advanced counterdrone capabilities, starting with contracts with AIM Defence for their lasers and SYPAQ for their kamikaze drones. We've built a factory that is producing the world-leading Ghost Sharks right now in Sydney, creating just under a thousand direct and indirect jobs. Last week, I christened the first of 40 new Bluebottle drone boats built in Morisset in the member for Hunter's electorate. When complete, the fleet of 55 Bluebottles will be the largest fleet of autonomous surface vessels in the world.

These aren't isolated examples. Our record investment in defence is leading to an expansion of our sovereign defence industry. Defence manufacturing output has grown by 35 per cent since we came to government, and, as the Deputy Prime Minister said, defence manufacturing jobs have grown by 11 per cent last year alone. This compares to the chaos and spin of the last Liberal government. Defence manufacturing fell by 18 per cent, while consultants grew by 15 per cent. This was typical of a government that was all announcement and zero delivery—all red carpets and Top Gun music. They produced media releases; we're producing missiles. They built consultancies; we're building drones. They closed shipyards; we're opening factories. Only Labor can be trusted with defence.