Doorstop Interview, Adelaide

SUBJECTS: Defence in SA; Deep Maintenance and Modification Facility; Health; Energy; Greens Leadership; AUKUS; Australia-Indonesia Relationship; Drought. 

MATT BURNELL, MEMBER FOR SPENCE: I'm Matt Burnell, the local federal Member for Spence. It's wonderful to be here today in the electorate of Spence, alongside my good friend and Acting Prime Minister, Richard Marles, the Minister for Defence also, as well as the Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas and our Treasurer, Stephen Mullighan. Firstly, I'd like to say to my electorate, to the voters in Spence, thank you very much for re-electing me at the recent election with a vote of confidence. And it's an absolute honour and privilege to be able to serve this great community here in the northern suburbs. Today is a really special day for the northern suburbs and when we stand here in the centre of my electorate, it's quite fitting that we stand beside the Royal Australian Air Force Base Edinburgh and right next door to the Deep Maintenance and Modification Facility here for Boeing. We are the defence state, and it's projects like this that keeps us with that title. To speak more about the Deep Maintenance and Modification Facility, I'll hand over to the Acting Prime Minister, Richard Marles.

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Matt, and it's great to be here with Matt Burnell, our wonderful Member for Spence as it is to be here with Peter Malinauskas, the Premier of South Australia, and Steve Mullighan, the Treasurer of South Australia. Although today, Steve is here in his capacity as the Minister for Defence and Space Industries in South Australia. We stand here in unity making this announcement today, but of course, tomorrow we definitely won't be as the Cats come across to absolutely flog Port. But right now, we've got a really important announcement to make. We are here at the Deep Maintenance and Modification Facility site. This is a $200 million joint project between the Commonwealth Government and the South Australian Government. It is a great example of our two governments working closely together to enhance our nation's capability, but also to build defence industry in the country, to build defence industry here in South Australia. What you see behind us is a four hangar facility which will be dedicated to the maintenance and sustainment of our P-8 Poseidon fleet and our E-7 Wedgetail fleet. It's also anticipated that there is the opportunity for this to do maintenance on the New Zealand Defence Force Poseidon aircraft as well. This is building sovereign capability. If this wasn't being developed here, we would need to be doing that kind of maintenance elsewhere in the world, but not here in Australia. And so it is a really good example of how we are building sovereign capabilities so that we can maintain and sustain the equipment that we are using, in this instance, in the Royal Australian Air Force. As part of that today, we are also announcing the renewal of the contract with Boeing Defence Australia for the through‑life sustainment of our fleet of P‑8 Poseidon aircraft. This is a $291 million contract that supports 270 jobs in Australia. Again, this is really important sovereign capability. Those jobs involved are involved in a wider sustainment effort of the aircraft, but they will include sustainment and maintenance of the P‑8s here at the Deep Maintenance and Modification Facility. It really is a fantastic example of our two governments working together. We are working together to increase Australia's defence capability, we are working together to increase defence industry which is high tech industry, providing jobs across the economy nationally, but providing jobs across the economy here in South Australia and really importantly, this is the South Australian Government and the Commonwealth Government working very closely together to keep Australians safe.

PETER MALINAUSKAS, SA PREMIER: Well, thanks very much, Acting Prime Minister, it's great to be here with you and Matt – congratulations, Matt on your recent re-election as well – along with my good friend Stephen Mullighan, the Treasurer of South Australia, but also, of course, the Minister for Defence and Space Industries. I would just start by saying that the last time the Prime Minister was in Adelaide, he was quick to sort of invoke the type of provocation that you have, Acting Prime Minister, suggesting that Port was going to get a lesson from Hawthorn. That didn't eventuate, so let's just wait and see what happens tomorrow. One of the reasons why, not surprisingly to anyone here, I'm so glad that the Albanese Government has been re-elected with a strong majority is because it allows us to get on and keep doing the work for South Australians in partnership with one another. I think one of the best examples that the country has seen in some time of collaboration between state and federal government in a way that's in the best interest of the nation was in Whyalla. That was an example of both governments confronting a very substantial and technical challenge that was complex to deal with and we worked together, we collaborated, and we came up with a policy intervention that will stand the nation in good stead to maintain our ability to produce structural steel domestically for a long time to come. Now, of course, today, what we see is another example of that partnership coming together, but also in a way that has, in no small part, an impact on Whyalla as well. This partnership between the state government and the federal government sees the South Australian government building this brand new facility to house four different aircraft at any one time and undertake significant deep maintenance and modification for many decades to come. We build the facility, then we lease it back to the Commonwealth. And we're able to make sure that South Australia in and around Edinburgh remains one of the world's best facilities when it comes to aircraft maintenance, which of course, sets us up for a national sovereign capability for a long time to come. And in building this facility, we see about 2,000 tonnes of structural steel being required, the majority of which comes directly from Whyalla. So state government investing in a facility that the Commonwealth will use for our national security purposes for a long time to come, and at the same time drawing demand for structural steel coming out of Whyalla. It speaks to what can be achieved in the nation's interests when we have state government collaborating with federal government. This is very much a good example of that. And in the long term, of course, we'll see many, many jobs employed here in South Australia that are highly tentative in nature, sophisticated and complex, which demands higher wages in and around the maintenance of the Poseidon aircraft, amongst others that will use this facility. So to that end, I really want to thank the Deputy Prime Minister, not just for his friendship, but the Deputy Prime Minister for his commitment to South Australia maintaining its position as being well and truly the defence state, providing ongoing jobs to South Australians, but also collaborating to make sure that jobs as far as away as Whyalla are also the beneficiaries of South Australia being the home of defence industry. I’ll invite Mullers to say a few words, and I think we're happy to answer any questions.

STEPHEN MULLIGHAN, SA MINISTER FOR DEFENCE AND SPACE INDUSTRIES: Well, I can't tell you how pleased the Premier and I are to have the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, here today and also to be here with the local member, Matt Burnell. The South Australian defence industry has no greater friend or supporter than the Albanese Labor Government. And what we're seeing behind us today is the result of that close partnership between the state government and the federal government, between the Malinauskas state government and the Albanese federal government not only making sure that Australia can provide the services and support that our Defence Forces need, but there is a substantial boost to South Australia's defence industry in the process. We've invested in this facility to make sure that this activity doesn't just happen in Australia, but it happens in South Australia – as Matt said, in the defence state. And while a lot of the focus and the attention in the community is around our partnership on naval shipbuilding, today just shows how much broader our defence industries in South Australia are. We’re here at Edinburgh, the home of the aerospace industry in Australia for decades, continuing to build and grow that out into the future. And this partnership means that the Premier, the Minister for Education and the Malinauskas Government has the opportunity then to invest in other facilities, like our technical colleges, to give our high school kids the opportunity to see and feel what it will be like for them to get into long‑term, well paid, secure, highly skilled jobs in the future, supporting our Defence Forces. So we're so grateful for this partnership that we have with the Deputy Prime Minister, once again, finding fantastic ways to invest in South Australia, to support what we're trying to achieve here in the state government, so that we can build a more prosperous future for our state.

JOURNALIST: For the Deputy Prime Minister, please. Vaccination rates among children and teenagers have dropped to critical levels in Australia. What's the government doing to change that and will you be putting more resources into lifting vaccination rates?

MARLES: Well, vaccination is obviously a really important part of what we are doing across the board in relation to public health, and the Minister for Health has more say on this. But I think the point I'd really emphasise here is that what we are doing in terms of providing much greater investment in Medicare enables all the core fundamentals in terms of our health provision to occur and that's really at the heart of what we announced during the election campaign, which will really see the biggest investment in Medicare since its creation 40 years ago, and obviously ensuring that vaccination forms a key part of that is absolutely critical.

JOURNALIST: What is your reaction to the latest projections that show Labor is going to undershoot its 2030 renewable energy targets?

MARLES: Yeah look, we don't accept that. We feel that we're on target in relation to the renewable energy targets. But I think the point I'd really make in relation to this is that what you've seen over the last three years is consistency in terms of energy policy under Chris Bowen and through the Albanese Government, and that stands in stark contrast to what we saw for the better part of a decade prior to that, where under the former government, former Coalition government, we had 22 plus different energy policies and we saw that play out again during the course of the election. I think what Australians voted for at the federal election was consistent policy in relation to energy, and that's what we are bringing to bear. What we have done over the last three years is unlock investment in renewable energy, and we are seeing massive investment in renewable energy around the country now. Renewable energy firmed by gas, firmed by batteries, firmed by hydro, is ultimately the pathway by which we achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and we transition our economy to being a much more modern, high tech economy. We're on track to do that. We're on track to do that because we're pursuing consistent energy policy. 

JOURNALIST: What are your thoughts on Larissa Waters becoming the new Greens leader? Is she a good choice?

MARLES: Well look, we don't see eye to eye with the Greens. That's not going to surprise anyone. We have real differences with the Greens, and we prosecuted them during the course of the campaign. But I think on this day, it is right to acknowledge, acknowledge and congratulate Larissa Waters on becoming the leader of the Greens. It's obviously a significant achievement for any person to lead their political party as Larissa Waters is now doing and so I definitely congratulate her in respect of that, and we will see what her leadership brings as it unfolds with the Greens.

JOURNALIST: We're here talking today about maintenance jobs in the defence industry. When we talk about defence industry, we're usually talking about subs. So Mike Pezzullo has proposed Australia makes a planned nuclear submarine shipyard in WA, a joint Australia-US facility. And the purpose of his proposal is to maintain US Navy subs to help with their backlog, so it just kind of secures our relationship with the US a little bit more. My question is what does that mean for South Australia? Because our South Australian workforce, when it comes to submarines, it is very much– our whole personality is about it. So why would maintenance jobs go over there?

MARLES: So a few points there, firstly, in terms of South Australia, the maintenance of the Collins class submarines continues here in South Australia. There's no question about any of that. That's a clear commitment and that's what's happening going forward. This is the state which is going to build our future submarines, and the building of those submarines will be the single biggest production facility in the country in any industrial capacity. It represents the biggest industrial endeavour that our nation has ever undertaken, and that includes thinking about such iconic projects as the Snowy Hydro Scheme. This is of that order of magnitude in terms of what this will mean for Australia's economy, what that will mean for South Australia's economy, and when you combine that with the building of the Hunter class frigates at Osborne, Osborne is going to be one of, if not the largest worksite in the country. And so it is going to be used to its maximum capacity, thousands of people will be working there on an ongoing basis and that is a great thing for South Australia, as it is a great thing for the country. It also matters in terms of how we move forward with our acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine capability that we do develop the Henderson Defence Precinct in Western Australia. I, with the West Australian Premier announced the establishment of that Precinct last year. I was meeting with the West Australian Premier yesterday in respect of this. It is a really important part of the puzzle as we go forward, the development of HMAS Stirling in Western Australia, which will be the operational base, what is the operational base of our submarines today and will be the operational base of our future submarines and is the home of the Submarine Rotational Force – West that is really important, and having a sustainment and depot level maintenance facility for our future submarines and for Virginias, is really important to develop in Western Australia. Now, none of that is news. That's been really clear in terms of how we have announced the optimal pathway to acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine capability, which we announced back in March of 2023. We are really clear in terms of the way in which we are partnering with the United States in respect of that and the terms of that partnership now form part of a treaty between our two countries, in fact our three countries. 

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible), reliable partner when it comes to regional security and stability?  

MARLES: It definitely is. We, last year, signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement with Indonesia. I signed that with my then‑counterpart, now President Prabowo, and what it means is that our defence relationship with Indonesia today is as deep as it has ever been. More broadly, and I think we see this through the Prime Minister's visit to Indonesia over the last couple of days and his engagement with President Prabowo, I think the broader bilateral relationship with Indonesia is in as good a shape today as it has ever been, and that really matters. I mean, you only need to pull out the map to understand how important Indonesia is for Australia, but actually how important Australia can be for Indonesia. And it's really both of us understanding what our national interests are, and how we can advance our national interests further by working much more closely together, which has really seen a blossoming of our bilateral relationship and a blossoming of the defence component. 

JOURNALIST: Just a question for the Premier. Just further to this morning, drought. Is the government at all considering restrictions? Is the government at all considering water restrictions in response to that?

MALINAUSKAS: Not at this stage, but we will be monitoring the situation as it evolves. Obviously, we see the driest conditions that we've ever recorded in the state's history, particularly in the south. We know that at the moment, there is no requirement for water restrictions, but we continue to monitor the situation, as you would reasonably expect. 

JOURNALIST: (Inaudible), if we don't get enough rain? 

MALINAUSKAS: Ah, no, I'm not. No, I haven't seen any advice that speaks to a specific trigger date. But of course, when it doesn't rain, you have got to monitor the situation, and that's what we're doing. Thanks very much. 

ENDS