Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of Senator Brandis's answer to Senator Conroy in respect to the well-traversed subject of the broken promise on submarines. I want to put this on the record very early in this contribution. Whether it is Japanese, German or French expertise that is selected by the Commonwealth, there is one fundamental strategic imperative that must accompany this decision: Australia must insist the successful company transfer its design, engineering and shipbuilding capacities in a way that is integral to the build through-life support program. Strategic, economic and defence considerations all dictate this requirement.

We have any number of experts in this field, whether they be former Defence experts, independent experts, head of the Commission of Audit experts or Hans Ohff, former CEO of ASC and fellow at the University of Adelaide and whom I have just quoted. They all say one fundamental thing. They say that our defence and economic imperatives align with a build in South Australia.

We have heard a couple of questions asked of Senator Birmingham over the last couple of days about the initiatives—very good initiatives—he is proposing for employment opportunities and training organisations. But the reality is that in South Australia you cannot walk to the local paper shop, you cannot visit the service station, you cannot walk to the shopping centre, you cannot visit your friend's house and you cannot go to a barbecue without being told: 'We must build the submarines here. What are you, as my federal MP or representative, doing about that?'

I can go on at length about what we are trying to do about it, but the other side are in a horrendous position. There is probably 80 or 90 per cent support in the electorate in South Australia for a design-build-sustain of submarines in South Australia. It is so widely held and so deeply felt that it is impossible for those on the other side to move anywhere in South Australia without facing that question. They really do need to get onside and demand that the federal government does what the experts are saying it should do. If we have not got the design capability or the expertise for design—we have not got 300 designers on tap—then make them come to Australia, set up shop, do it efficiently and do it right here. It is a defence imperative, an economic imperative and, dare I say it, an electoral imperative for a lot of South Australian Liberal members of parliament.

We do know that the member for Hindmarsh is onside on this. He wants them built in South Australia because he cannot move anywhere in Hindmarsh without getting sandbagged on it. He has written to the Prime Minister. You only have to listen to the commentary in South Australia to know they are trying to find a safe state seat for him once he gets belted at the next federal election. We do know that the electorate of Boothby is very vulnerable to a campaign on this. If you look at the Xenophon vote, if you want to go down the political lane on this, it was exceptionally high in the seat of Boothby. It was really, really high. If Senator Xenophon stands a candidate there simply on the submarine issue in South Australia, and we have a credible campaign and candidate in South Australia, the seat of Boothby is in play—only 8,500 votes need to change.

My reading of it, when I walk around and visit workplaces and social gatherings in South Australia, is that I have not seen an issue like this before. With the demise of Holden, with the loss of all of those manufacturing jobs there, with the impending loss of the ASC and the future of that building and manufacturing sector, which is so critical to add-on small businesses—the drycleaner who gets a bit of work from someone who is going to and from the ASC, the takeaway shops, the service stations—and the building of new houses and all of those things that hang off well-paid good jobs in manufacturing, this is a really critical issue that needs to be decided earlier rather than later, and not be based on a prime ministerial whim for a deal with his friend the Japanese Prime Minister. We know what a great multiplier of jobs manufacturing is and this needs to be done as a sustainable defence of an economic imperative. They should build it in South Australia.