Doorstop, HMAS Arafura commissioning

SUBJECTS: Commissioning HMAS Arafura, Defence Capability, Defence Spending

MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Everybody thanks for coming along today, and it's great to be joined here by Chief of Navy, Mark Hammond for the commissioning of HMAS Arafura. This is a great day for many reasons. Obviously, it represents the additional capability that HMAS Arafura provides to the Royal Australian Navy in the role that it will be performing in offshore patrol, in securing our borders and being able to provide that additional presence, that the great capability it provides, being able to extend its reach from Australia's shores even further into our region, when required, whether that's in terms of protecting our borders or when required to support humanitarian efforts and engagement with our near neighbors in the Indo Pacific region as well. This is the first of its class, and so it represents the next iteration of our surface fleet expansion here in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy, the first of six of these vessels that are being built here in Australia, HMAS Arafura and Eyre to come after it were built in South Australia, and the remaining vessels are being built here in Western Australia, demonstrating the capacity of our local Defence industry and Australian workers, supplying that sovereign capability for our Australian Navy and our Australian Defense Force in Australia's interest, which is so very important in the times that we find ourselves in today. I've had the sort of followed the journey of this vessel during my time in Parliament, in Opposition and in Government, I was able to walk through the shipyards at Osborne, seeing it being built, being brought together, and myself and the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles had a tour of her only a few weeks ago down at HMAS Stirling.

And it's wonderful to see the great capability that it brings, not only in terms of its capacity to travel further and to do more, but also the way in which it looks after our most important capability in Australian Defence Force our people, the living quarters are much better. It provides them with greater safety, but also a better amenity when at sea, which means they are best able to perform their very important task that they undertake. The delivery of these patrol vessels is all part of what we delivered as the Albanese Labor Government, with our Surface Fleet Review, enhancing our surface fleet capabilities being built by Australians in particular, and of course, being built in South Australia and then being built in Western Australia, as part of our commitment to continuous naval ship building here in Western Australia, as we will be doing in South Australia as well. That ensures that we maintain the important Defence industry and worker capability instead of the stop start circumstances that we've seen in the past. It means we're more efficient at delivering that capability going forward. It means we provide that job certainty and industry certainty going forward, and that's important because it maintains our sovereign capability to be able to provide for our Defence Force and our national defence well into the future. It's a great day for the ship's company today. It's been quite a while since we have commissioned a first in class vessel into the Royal Australian Navy. It's very special for them being able to be part of HMAS Arafura ship company, but it's also important for the families. We really thank our Navy personnel for everything they do, but I also want to acknowledge their families as well. When our crews deploy to sea, they are away for some substantial time sometimes, and of course, sometimes not contactable either, and things still have to go on back at home, and the families give up their personnel member to serve our greater national interest. And we recognise that can be hard, and we do seek to support them as much as we can. And I really want to acknowledge their sacrifice and their support in the national interest, supporting their sailors on our vessels as they do, because it makes the world of difference to what we're able to do in providing for our national defence. So I really acknowledge the crews, the great work that they will do. I know they're very excited to be able to have their vessel now commissioned today, and we acknowledge the families, and I also. I want to thank everyone involved in the construction of the vessel as well, bringing it to fruition as a great example of an Australian built naval capability. I'll let Chief of Navy say a few words before we get on to questions as well.

CHIEF OF NAVY, VADM MARK HAMMOND, AO, RAN: Thank you, Minister. Good morning. All this is we like to, like to say a great Navy day. It's always better to be commissioning a warship than a farewelling one. And in the context of being a maritime nation, as the custodians of the third largest exclusive economic zone in the world, patrol vessels like these are critical enabling assets. They enable us to patrol that vast ocean realm. And a ship with 1600 tons in size is replacing ship with only 300 tons in size. So much, much better sea keeping capabilities, much better endurance, much better control capabilities, and therefore the significant improvement for the Royal Australian Navy, as Minister said, ultimately there'll be six of these, this is the first of class, as many first of class, it takes a little while to iron out their issues, and we've deliberately stepped through that process of eliminating any engineering risks to our personnel as the highest priority. So what you see behind me in HMAS Arafura is the product of a significant amount of work. It's a ship built by Australians, from Australian steel, in Australian shipyards and now crewed by Australians serving under the Australian White ensign for the Royal Australian Navy so it’s a very proud day for us. I know from talking to the sailors, they're really pleased with this ship I've served in submarines, principally. The living conditions on here are extraordinary by comparison. So they should be, should be pretty pleased, and I look forward to them coming together as a team over the next few weeks of being certified, built up those operations. We got, we got a few months of sea trials now in front of us, before we let the crew loose, but every confidence and they will achieve all those certification milestones, I look forward to going to sea with  her at some point in the near future. Thank you.

JOURNALIST: Minister, these were built to replace the Armidales, I believe. Can you talk us through, obviously, the it can travel a lot further you mentioned, but can you talk through how it's better and some of the other capabilities?

KEOGH: Well, certainly I’ll let Chief of Navy get into the tic tacs on that. But as we've already mentioned, it can travel further than the vessels that it's replacing, they are larger. They can hold more, which means they can have more adaptable capability on board. You have the capacity to be able to deploy the boats out the back whilst moving, which gives it a great, greater degree of flexibility in terms of other ships it may have to engage with when performing its work, all of which is about that expanded capability and flexibility that it brings. You know, as a larger boat, it's able to withstand the greater sea state as well. It means, in as the Chief of Navy mentioned, you know, the area that it has to patrol, in terms of our exclusive economic zone, is huge, and being able to perform that task, be able to travel at speed while doing that when necessary, and being able to do that and also engage with our near neighbours when required, to provide that additional assistance that it can now provide that may not have been able to be done as easily with the boat that it's replacing is an incredible enhancement to its capability. And certainly being able to take the extra crew, be able to look after them for a longer journey, a longer voyage, and keep them well while they're doing that incredibly important initiative capability as well. Because one of the great limiting factors of any capability in the Defence Force is going to be the people that operate it, making sure they're looked after and best protected and supported when they're away at sea. As incredibly important, and this vessel does that very well. But I'll let the Chief of Navy maybe get into some of the more technical aspects of that enhanced capability.

CHIEF OF NAVY: You can tell the Minister spent a bit of time around these ships and around the Navy. Look what I'll add to that three sea boats compared to on the Armidale class. So a little bit more flexibility there. Big flight deck back up for uncrewed systems and a flexible mission deck below that. So she's got a few more tools in the toolbox. Trips up her sleeve. She's also better equipped for international engagement as an Australian warship flying the Australian white Ensign. She enjoys solid immunity in the ports of the world, representing Australia. I like them to high commissions at the high seas, and we have a strong role in supporting our foreign affairs missions around the Southwest Pacific and the region through international engagement. So a vessel like this can enter a port, it can host activities in support of the High Commissioner or the Ambassador in location. And that's an important capability for us, especially as we try to double down on diplomacy and deterrence during these extraordinarily uncertain times. So I think it's a much more flexible, much more favourable ship. The last point the Minister made, the habitability again, that underwrites your fatigue, so if you're serving in you know a small ship that's rocking and rolling a lot and is constantly moving, and that's that has a different fatigue load on the ship's company over time, compared to something that's much more comfortable.

JOURNALIST: You sort of touched on it a bit earlier but what’s Arafura’s main tasks? Would it be patrolling the border?

CHIEF OF NAVY: Principally, she's been applied for constabulary operations. So that's fishery surveillance, Border Protection operations, like we've been conducting Operation Sovereign Borders. So all the contemporary activities that patrol boats have done for decades. But in addition, because of her extra size and capacity, she's, she's got the reach to be able to go to the Southwest Pacific, partner with our Pacific family nations and neighbors, and to support those other diplomatic roles as well.

JOURNALIST: In terms of manpower, is it as powerful, or does it have those fighting capabilities if faced with anything?

CHIEF OF NAVY: No, I think the, some commentators suggest this thing should be, should be packed with missiles. We use surface Combatants for patrol craft. it does constabulary operations. It's purposely designed for that.

JOURNALIST: It's also designed, I think I read, to have the capability to expand into things like mine hunting or surveying. Is that part of the plans just yet, or is it just something up the sleeve for future use?

CHIEF OF NAVY: That's a really good question, and the answer is a bit of both. There are some organic capabilities that we can deploy now or we will be able to deploy once we get the ship through a full certification period. Having the two oversight seaboat operation options, plus the stern launcher recovery opens up a bunch of new opportunities for us. There are navies that are operating uncrewed surface vessels from launch and recovery systems like that and that massive flight deck means that through aerial vehicles or over the horizon surveillance and reconnaissance, all of those things come into play with the ship.

JOURNALIST:  And what's the plan now? You mentioned there's some trials going to happen once those are done. Is it the northern border is going to head to?

CHIEF OF NAVY: I would expect that once she goes through a full certification period and the command of the Australian fleet reports that the ship and the ship's company and the sustainment system are ready to go, then we will look to force assign that to Operation Sovereign Borders, to maritime border command in the first instance, I do want to show her off, though. I'd like you to, I'd like her to go overseas, whether it's South West Pacific or Singapore, Indonesia, and all of that's possible.

JOURNALIST:  And you mentioned there were some wrinkles that had to be ironed out. I think it might have been an issue with fire protection or something. Is that. Does that mean that once, now that those are sorted, the next four that are being built now can come online a bit quicker?

CHIEF OF NAVY: That's correct. As the Minister said, continuous naval ship building is something we stick at. This is the first of class. We haven't built this ship in Australia before, and it's based on the overseas design. When we compared the overseas design against the Australian regulatory framework, which is administered by authorities such as Australian Maritime Safety Authority and compare, when we compared the design against their requirements, there were some modifications that had to be made. You mentioned structural fire protection – that was one of the great examples for moving the fire pump out of the engine room. Most, most fires at sea occur in the engine rooms, and the first thing we do was isolate fuel and power to the engine room in that instance. So we had to make some adjustments, particularly around assured fire protection for the ship's company, so we're very thorough about that. It took a bit of time. We worked with AMSA and the regulators, and we're very comfortable we've resolved all of those issues. They were retrofitted to this ship in the build because we were already in construction, when some of those were identified, but they have already been incorporated into the build for future ships.

JOURNALIST: Just further to that question, Defence would concede, the problem plagued frigate program is causing issues with Navy capabilities. Do you believe Australian ship building needs to step up?

CHIEF OF NAVY: Sorry could you repeat that question?

JOURNALIST: It's a little bloated, sorry. Defence would concede, the problem plagued frigate program is causing issues with Navy capabilities. Do you believe Australian ship building needs to step up?

CHIEF OF NAVY: I'm not sure which frigate program you're talking about… Well, what I would say is that we have three frigate programs running at the moment, the Anzac Class frigate program, and we saw five of those underway earlier this year, involved in the PLA task group circumnavigation of Australia, five of the seven underway at the same time. So I wouldn't concede there's any problems with that frigate program, the Hunter Class frigate program is on schedule, on budget down in Adelaide. That's a big ship. That's the biggest surface combatant we've built here in Australia, and again, it's the first of class for us. But I certainly wouldn't characterize that as anything other than having gone through some teething problems that's now on schedule and going on the productionisation down there is world class, they are learning lessons and achieving qualities, in Adelaide that are being reported back and exported back to the United Kingdom. So I think the shipyard workers, in Adelaide are doing an outstanding job. And the third frigate program is the general purpose frigate program, C3000. And we're preparing advice with government on that program.

JOURNALIST: Just on the modifications of the OPVs, is the Navy happy to take responsibility for these delays and sort of cost blow outs that came about from these obviously necessary actions?

CHIEF OF NAVY: I think we've worked through with the ship builder, and I think Navy had a role to play in terms of picking up some of these things a little earlier than what we did, and we've learned some lessons from that, and I don't shy away from that. We've been meticulous. I've been in the role for three years now, and I'm one of the people who went to see Government and said, Hey, look, we can slow things down and make some changes. So I think we've we need to recognise that Shipbuilding is a national enterprise. It involves Navy, it involves industry, it involves Government, it involves our education system. And if we're going to truly succeed at continuous naval shipbuilding, we've got to make sure it's continuous. So we've learned these lessons once, and we pay them forward every time we stop starting with any program, that's where all the risk is, and that's not me talking, that's all the external reviews in this country. So I'm pleased to say that we've resolved those issues. We've worked really hard for the industry to get to where we are today, and I've been really happy to be responsible. Shout out as well, to Luerssen, but also to BAE and ASC, who provide us shipyard workers in Adelaide to get the work done. And that's the kind of culture that we want to establish here if we're going to succeed in continuous naval shipyard, so not walking away from the challenges that proof is in the pudding. And it's nice to finally be here, and I look forward to the other five ships joining Arafura over the next few years.

JOURNALIST: Could Australia adequately defend itself with our current capabilities?

KEOGH: Australia has great capability. And as the Chief of the Navy said, before we had all of the Anzac, five Anzac frigates, out earlier this year, doing important work with circumnavigation of Australia. But we need to build on that capability. It's why, when we came into Government three years ago, we commissioned the Defence Strategic Review to make sure that we were very clear about not just what our current capabilities are, but what the capabilities are that we need into the future. And following the Defence Strategic Review, we had the National Defence Strategy, and importantly, the Surface Combatant Fleet Strategy, and that's what the patrol vessel and everything else is about, is making sure that we've got the right capabilities going forward. And there was certainly changes that were made to the integrated investment program going forward to make sure that we're delivering the right capabilities as quickly as we can bring them on board, together with growing our Defence Force personnel numbers as well, so that we can operate those capabilities and grow that quickly. That's what we're about. That's what we're doing. That's why you see such a substantial additional investment into our Defence spending, the Defence Budget under the Albanese Labor Government, additional $10 billion over the forward estimates. And you see an additional $57 billion over the decade, building that greater capability that we need into the future.

JOURNALIST: The Australian Financial Review reported that maintenance budgets have been cut by about 10% in Defence, is AUKUS squeezing the budget too tightly to pay for these nuclear subs, basically.

KEOGH: So as part of the Defence Strategic Review and the recut of the Integrated Investment Program, what we saw was that some of the programs that had been we inherited from the previous government were changed, and that involved not only how we were engaging with the bringing on of new capability, other capabilities were pushed back because they were not as urgent. And that obviously has flow on impact into what the sustainment budget reflects as well. We manage all of those components of the defence budget carefully to make sure that our current capabilities are ready and available to deploy when and as they are required, as well as making sure we're bringing on the new capabilities that are necessary. Now as things evolve with what is an aging Navy and aging capabilities that we've inherited, and this has been one of the concerns that Navy had when we came into government, was that there had not been sufficient forward investment by the previous government. Things cost more to maintain and to sustain. They take more effort. We're making sure that that's being provided, and working closely with all three services across the Defence Force to make sure that the capabilities we require, whether they're at sea, land, in the air, space and cyber, available to provide that national Defence capability that we need when we need it.

JOURNALIST: So the current defence spending is adequate for what we need?

KEOGH: So certainly, after having done that Review, we made a considerable additional investment into Defence spending, and it sees our Defence spending grow much higher and faster than the plans that the previous government had in place, so that additional $10 billion over the forward estimates, it sees us go from having spending just over $50 billion through to it in four years time, spending over $100 billion in Defence. That means over the decade, we're spending an additional $57 billion there's something like a 300, over $300 billion being spent on Defence capability under the Albanese Labor government over the decade, making sure, after we did that review, that we are getting the capabilities that we need. We've made significant uplift already in the expenditure that we're making to deliver those capabilities for the Australian Defence Force to protect Australia. Thank you.