Press Conference, Henderson Shipyard

SUBJECTS:  Continuous naval shipbuilding; $4 billion contract with Austral; investment in national security; UK submarine.

JOSH WILSON MP: Hi everyone, good afternoon. It's fantastic to be here at the Australian Marine Complex in Henderson, the common user facility on the lands of the Whadjuk people, I pay my respects to the elders past and present. And it's great to be here with some special colleagues, Pat Conroy, Minister for Defence Industry, Patrick Gorman, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, my Senate colleague, Ellie Whiteaker, Paul Papalia, the WA Minister for Defence Industry, and Paddy Gregg, CEO of Austal and Lieutenant-General Simon Stuart, Chief of Army. 

As the local member I'm rapt we're making substantial progress in our ‘Future Made in Australia’ agenda and in delivering on our National Defence Strategy and delivering continuous naval shipbuilding, particularly here at one of two shipbuilding hubs in Australia on the West Coast, the Indian Ocean close to my electorate of Freemantle. 

When it comes to sovereign capability for a continent island nation like ours, it's hard to think of a more important area than shipbuilding and related maritime industries and skills. I've always championed the remarkable output of the companies and infrastructure that also exists here in Henderson. It's been really significant capacity for a long period of time now, and we see it take that next step now and we see it go to the next level as one of two key national maritime manufacturing hubs. 

I really want to acknowledge the strong commitment that the WA Labor Government has made to that cause over the last 10 years and acknowledge the contribution that the people we have here in particular have made to that effort. Of course I welcome the unprecedented support that's being provided by the Albanese Government. 

Everyone who's understood the importance of a sovereign naval shipbuilding capability has waited a long time to see this occur. At the time I was first elected in 2016 there was a lot of talk by the previous government and very little action. 

This investment, this milestone announcement, is being made today to make sure that Australia has both ships and other maritime craft needed for defence, which includes our capacity to control and protect our significant ocean domain, mainly involved in security engagement, disaster response in our duty to make sure that we have manufacturing capacity skills, relevant infrastructure, innovation and the broad ecosystem of companies large and small, that is critical to delivering that sovereign capability. 

So I'm very, very glad to hand over to my friend and colleague Minister Pat Conroy to speak about today's milestone achievement. 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Thanks Josh, it's a pleasure to be here at Henderson. The Albanese Labor Government believes in a defence future made in Australia, and what you're seeing today is another instalment in that commitment, a vote of trust in WA workers, a vote of trust in WA’s defence industry to deliver what is the biggest transformation of the Australian Army since the Vietnam War. 

At the centrepiece of the National Defence Strategy is the transformation of the Australian Army into one focused on littoral manoeuvre, long‑range strike and the $4 billion contract that was signed today is the centrepiece of that. 

That $4 billion contract in conjunction with the $1 billion contract late last year to build landing craft medium, and today's landing craft heavy announcement will deliver 3,000 high‑skilled, well‑paid secure jobs for WA workers, 3,000 high‑skilled jobs for WA workers transforming the Australian Army. 

This is part of our commitment to continuous naval shipbuilding in the west, the only government in the history of the federation that has committed to continuous naval shipbuilding in the west and we're doing this because it's good for the west, it's good to have continuity of work so that we can sustain a very highly skilled workforce, and we'll see 10,000 jobs created through this endeavour, but it's also good for the defence of the nation, because it means we can build more things in this country, we can have greater self reliance and greater sovereignty. 

So this is a great day for the Australian Army, it's a great day for the defence of the nation, but it's especially a great day for WA industry, WA workers in particular, and I want to thank the Chief of the Army for his commitment, I want to thank Austal for their strong support, and I want to thank Minister Papalia and the WA Government for being a great partner of the Albanese Labor Government as we drive thousands of well‑paid high‑skilled jobs making this country safer, and that's what today's announcement is all about. 

I'll now invite Mr Papalia to make some comments. 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRIES PAUL PAPALIA: Thanks for that. Today is a pivotal moment in the march towards delivering continuous naval shipbuilding in Western Australia and that is a huge leap forward for Western Australia's defence industry sector. 

What it means, continuous shipbuilding means that once one class of ship is complete, you roll straight on into the next one. It's multigenerational jobs, certainty for Western Australians, young people coming into this sector can expect to work their entire careers with certainty in that sector. 

Initially it provides certainty to our Australian sovereign shipbuilder Austal. They know now that they've got certainty of work, certainty of demand into the future, and they are able to invest and plan for the future again for generations ahead. 

This is an incredible boost and uplift to the Australian – the Western Australian defence sector, but I've got to acknowledge that it's delivery on a commitment by Minister Conroy. He came to Western Australia more than a year ago now and made the statement, made the commitment to bring continuous shipbuilding to Western Australia. As we've heard already, that has been said numerous times over the years by other governments. This is the first time it's actually been delivered. It's an incredible outcome for Western Australia. 

I've also got to say from the state government's perspective, it's very important that we welcome the announcement today of $30 million to enable forward works for alternative sites for nondefence activity that will be disrupted a little as a consequence of providing Austal access to buildings in our CUF and some of the common use area. That is a very important element. We at the state level are very focused on ensuring that we continue to support our defence, our resources sectors from this site and from our common user facilities. 

I'd just like to hand over to Chief of Army now. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIMON STUART, CHIEF OF ARMY: Thanks very much, minister. Australians can trust in and be proud of their army because we are delivering on the Australian Government's National Defence Strategy. We are delivering an army that is both relevant today and among the challenges of tomorrow. 

We're delivering an army that can fight and win in the littorals, that can strike at ever-increasing ranges. We are delivering an army that is integrated digitally and procedurally with the rest of the ADF, and our allies and partners, and of course our industry partners. 

We are delivering rapidly and comprehensively. This program has been accelerated almost by a decade. I was very, very proud of the efforts of everyone who's been associated with getting us to today, and soldiers across our army and across this incredible transformation, the largest recapitalisation in the Australian Army since World War II. And I couldn't be more proud of what our soldiers and their families all around the country are doing to realise that transformation and to realise an army that is optimised and can strike at range. 

I also want to say thank you to Paddy Gregg and all of the Austal team who are now partners for life with the Australian Army, and we look forward to that productive and strong relationship supporting and serving the Australian Army. I'd now like to hand over to Paddy. 

PADDY GREGG, CEO OF AUSTAL: Thanks very much. What an amazing day for Austal, our army partners and indeed the whole defence industry here in Western Australia. Now this contract signing today will create thousands of jobs over the next decades and put huge certainty into employment and the supply chain in Western Australia.

I'm really pleased to say that a few years ago we embarked on this journey with the government, with defence about creating sovereign shipbuilding capability here in Australia, and as we stand here today signing another huge contract, $4 billion, in partnership with Austal, government are absolutely delivering on that promise, it is a very, very exciting time. 

We are pretty pleased that our design partner on this program, Damen Navel is here with us today, world-class designer and ship builder, very excited about working with them, and indeed with a whole lot of other supply chain] partners as we embark on this project later this year. 

This is actually the biggest contract we've signed here in Australia with Austal, $4 billion, and I can assure you the full Austal team are absolutely committed and capable to delivering this project in partnership with Army. Thanks everybody. I'll hand over to Patrick Gorman for some comments. 

ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER PATRICK GORMAN: Thanks Paddy. This, as Chief of Army said, is a proud day for Australia, it's a proud day for Western Australia, and it's a proud day for the workers here in Henderson in the electorate of Josh Wilson here in Fremantle. 

What we have is a commitment to the next generation of shipbuilding here in Western Australia, we have a commitment to those good quality manufacturing jobs, we have that commitment to a defence future made in Australia, indeed a defence future made in Western Australia, 1,100 jobs directly employed through Austal, but then another 2,000 jobs on top of that, and we're also doing the hard work with the state government to make sure that we've got the skills that we need through programs like our Free TAFE Program that's giving opportunity to the next generation of Western Australians. 

I really want to congratulate Pat Conroy for the work that he has done. He's a great friend of Western Australia, and this signing ceremony today is proof of that. Another great friend of Western Australia is Ellie Whiteaker. Senator, I hand over to you. 

SENATOR ELLIE WHITEAKER:  Thanks, Pat, and it's great to be here with friends and colleagues. I want to particularly thank Minister Conroy for visiting our great state yet again and making this really, really important investment in our state. It is an investment in our national security, it is an investment in our defence industries with Western Australia. It is I think extremely well regarded for, but it's also an investment in jobs, in manufacturing jobs, in shipbuilding jobs, but importantly to me, it's an investment in my local community. 

My local community, just 10 minutes down the road in the City of Coburn, so ably represented by my local member, Josh, the member for Fremantle, I know just how important an investment like this is to the mums and dads and families, communities like mine, when thinking about the future of industry and the future of jobs in this country, and I'm so proud to be part of a government that is making this significant historical investment in continuous Naval shipbuilding right here in Henderson in a way that will transform my community over many decades and generations to come.I'm going to hand back over to Minister Conroy now to answer questions, but thanks to everyone for being here today. Thanks to Austal for their work and commitment to our great state, and to the army and the navy who I think are working well, extremely well together to deliver on our government's commitment to defence and ship building. Thank you. 

MINISTER CONROY: Thanks, Senator Whiteaker. Before we answer questions, just to give you an idea of the scale of these, because we've sort of glossed over that; we're building 18 landing craft medium, this contract for $4 billion is to deliver eight landing craft heavy. These are very big vessels, these are 4,000 tonne vessels, so they're about the size, some bigger, than the ANZAC class frigates that are stationed right now at HMAS Stirling. They have the ability to transport military equipment like the Bushmaster, tanks, mobile rocket launchers, over 4,000 kilometres to get them to where we need them to go, and then our plan is building those two landing craft projects and transitioning seamlessly into building Mogami-class frigate, which is the most advanced general-purpose frigate in the world. 

So as Minister Papalia said, the future is bright for WA shipbuilding and the future is bright for WA workers. 

Happy to answer questions, first on today's announcement, and then myself and my political colleagues would be happy to answer questions on other things. 

JOURNALIST: When will the first ship be built from this contract? 

MINISTER CONROY: Construction begins this year with the first vessel being delivered in 2028/2029. 

JOURNALIST: Besides the size of the heavy and medium, are there any other capability differences? 

MINISTER CONROY: So the medium can carry ‑ sorry, the large can carry about 500 tonnes of equipment. So they’re substantially bigger than the landing craft medium. The landing craft medium is about 50 metres long and the landing craft heavy will be 100 metres long. Both will have the ability to land on beaches and then depress the bow and the vehicles like tanks can come rolling off. 

JOURNALIST: It’s a significant announcement, but for people at home, are you able to explain why this is so important, why they should care about $4 billion going into the defence force?  

MINISTER CONROY: I'll invite the Chief of the Army to speak on behalf of the Army but this means the Australia Army will have mobility it hasn’t had in a long, long time. It will have the ability to transport significantly sized units around our near environment, up to 4000 kilometres away. When you accompany that with the acquisition of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, the HIMARS rocket launchers, that are being used right now in Ukraine, you can see the Australian Army transporting rocket launchers to islands within 4000 kilometres of Australia and then deploying HIMARS and that have a strike range of another 1,000 kilometres.

So this is all about deterring conflict by having long‑range strike, so that no potential adversary can ever get near Australia, and I invite the Chief of the Army to give a more accurate picture. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL STUART: Thanks, Minister. Look, deterrence relies on [indistinct] and that's exactly what the Australian Army [indistinct] and we are delivering on the National Defence Strategy that envisages the Australian Defence Force and is able to bring to bear all of the strengths of our Army, our Navy, our Air Force and our Space and Cyber capabilities, and we always operate and fight together. This allows us to get over to [indistinct], that is coastal areas where the populations live and the geography [indistinct] in order to deter any potential adversary and any harm that they may wish to inflict on Australians. 

JOURNALIST: By globally, you said acts of deterrence. Does it send a message? 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL STUART: It's absolutely sends a message, that's what deterrence is all about, is sending a message that Australia and the ADF playing its part is relevant and credible, alongside our allies and partners, and our focus every single day is to deter conflict, because we're only too aware of the risks. 

JOURNALIST: Just on this, for the members of the public that might not understand what a littoral force means, could explain what that entails? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, it means transporting and landing in the environment where the sea meets land, so it means islands, so it means coastal areas, as the Chief of Army said. So this gives us the ability ‑ these landing craft are stationed in three battalions, one in Brisbane, one in North Queensland, one in Darwin, and they'll be able to transport the three combat brigades or parts of our three combat brigades in a station there. 

So when there is an eventuality that requires that, these ships can transport heavy units of the Australian Army to islands that are further afield, deploy strike capability and then threaten potential adversaries. So this is a great defensive measure to deter anyone thinking of coming close to Australia, if that makes sense. 

JOURNALIST: Do we know exactly when construction will start this year? 

MINISTER CONROY: Later this year. Paddy might have a view on that, but construction will begin this year on Landing Craft Heavy. 

JOURNALIST: And what are the kinds of trades these jobs, WA jobs ‑‑ 

MINISTER CONROY: I think Paddy will be in a position to answer that. 

JOURNALIST: Yeah. 

PADDY GREGG: So we're working through the design on both landing craft medium and landing craft heavy at the minute, and I've just been [indistinct] which really is the commencement of the construction of the vessels. We'll then get into a drum beat where we deliver vessels at set intervals and we do that for reasons of efficiency and to match the trades that come on to the vessels. So these vessels will take all trades. We will need welders, we will need fabricators, we will need electricians, we will need carpenters, we will need engineers, we will need supply chain professionals. This is a great project that provides lots of jobs for all sorts of people at different scales, from, you know, blue collar manual trade skills right through to white collar in the office, and it is a great project for Western Australia. 

JOURNALIST: Does WA have the workforce to be able to fulfil these jobs? Can you speak to that? 

MINISTER PAPALIA: So what this task is complementary of our resources sector, so we have the world's biggest resources sector, massive opportunity for Western Australians in terms of employment and careers, but it's significant. And what this does is provide certainty, once you begin on continuous Navy shipbuilding, you don't stop, and you go to places around the world like Glasgow in the UK, or Newport News in the US, you find generations of families who've been doing shipbuilding, like four or five generations, since they were made of wood, and that means that if you know that is an opportunity, you've got that certainty and that confidence to enter that career path. 

With regard to the numbers, as you heard Josh say, Patrick actually, we are collaborating with State and Federal Governments to ensure that pretty much all of the trades that we require, you can go and get your apprenticeship for free in Western Australia for those skills. 

We've done modelling with the Department of Training Workforce Development who's done modelling of our demand, we know that we'll meet that demand as required over time. We have the capacity in Western Australia to do big things, we do mega projects, that's what happens in Western Australia, this is just going to complement what goes on. 

JOURNALIST: We are in a skilled labour shortage though, you said we'll meet the demand in these industries, will that put more pressure on construction? 

MINISTER PAPALIA: Well, we train young people as they come through. Most ‑ in fact the biggest number of ‑ we've done modelling, we know where the workforce comes from in the defence sector in WA, and the biggest proportion of the workforce is trained each year and enters the workforce from Western Australia, young people entering the workforce, and so we'll keep attracting them to do this and select this as a pathway. 

JOURNALIST: Is the infrastructure here already ready for construction? 

MINISTER PAPALIA: That big shed behind you is one of the buildings that Austal will be granted access to as part of the arrangement that I spoke of. We have to build alternative sites for some of the non‑defence users to ensure that they can use that. There's another building in this lay down area. 

MINISTER CONROY: And if I can just supplement on the training, beyond free TAFE and the great cooperation there, we're funding defence specific programs like the School Pathways Program. That's doing great work in identifying people who are coming through non‑traditional ways, means, and South West Metro TAFE here is the best maritime training centre in the country that you should be really proud of. So I'm really confident that the workforce is here. 

And that's the beauty that Paul was talking about with continuous naval shipbuilding. Fly‑in‑fly‑out work is not for every tradie, it's hugely disruptive to families, people make big sacrifice. For tradies who are in different stages of their lives, they might have a young family, they can get up and know that they can work every day, they'll be guaranteed a job for life here building naval projects.  They'll still earn very good money and they'll contribute to the defence of the nation and they don't have to make the sacrifice of hopping on a plane up to the Pilbara for a couple of weeks at a time. 

JOURNALIST: Is the timeline the same for the medium vessels that the contract was signed obviously earlier, so is the delivery the same for both medium and the large? 

MINISTER CONROY: No, they're different timelines. We brought forward, such are the strategic circumstances we brought forward the landing craft heavy project by 10 years. As the Chief of Army said, we expect, as I said, cutting steel on both of them this year. The first of the landing craft heavy will be delivered in 28/29, landing craft medium will be before then, and these landing craft heavy will run out to the late 2030s, because they're much bigger ships as you would envisage. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, there had been some speculation about these vessels being constructed overseas. Was that ever being considered? 

MINISTER CONROY: No, I can give you that absolute assurance. No, never. We're committed to continuous naval shipbuilding. All eight of the landing craft heavy, all 18 of the landing craft medium will be built right here in WA in Henderson. And Austal as part of their contract have committed to minimum Australian contract expenditure in the 60 per cent, above 60 per cent in fact, and that will be enforced. 

JOURNALIST: That will be end-to-end and there will be no fabrication overseas? 

MINISTER CONROY: These are being built right here in Henderson. Obviously, as I said, with an Australian contract expenditure commitment in the 60 per cent range, more than 60 per cent, some parts will come from overseas, that's standard with every defence project, as people would expect, but they have been built in Henderson, all 26 of them. 

JOURNALIST: These projects obviously, it's going into 2030 for that continuous shipbuilding. Does that 60 per cent commitment feed into many, many years to come? What are we looking like when we get into the future? 

MINISTER CONROY: Yeah, over the life of the project, Austal have signed a $4 billion dollar contract. They have to contractual commitments, I don't have the exact percentage within 60 per cent, but around the 60 per cent of the contract expenditure must be spent in Australia. 

JOURNALIST: After this project, I mean you're talking about for a person's life time that they can be assured they can work in shipbuilding, beyond that project, what do we expect with that?  

MINISTER CONROY: So the next project after this is the Mogami‑class frigate, which again, the last government had us delivering one frigate by 2034, we're going to deliver four frigates by 2034 with the first one by the end of the decade through the Mogami‑class project. As the Henderson consolidation takes shape, we'll move production of the Mogami‑class to Australia. We've committed to 11 Mogami‑class, and so that will run out into the 2030s and 2040s, and then by that stage there will be another project. 

So a worker starting their apprenticeship right here, right now will have a job for life building naval vessels for the Australian Defence Force, helping make this country safer. 

SPEAKER: We've got a comment. 

MINISTER CONROY: I think we'll end that now on this announcement. We've got time for a couple of questions on news of the day.  

JOURNALIST: There was an Astute‑class submarine that was due to arrive here later today but it's been delayed because of the Rottnest swim tomorrow, are you disappointed you won't be able to see it? 

MINISTER CONROY: I'm not going to confirm the exact arrival of the Astute‑class submarine. These things are kept reasonably quiet, but I look forward to the arrival of Astute-class, which is part of the submarine maintenance period work to demonstrate that we’re ready for submarine rotation [indistinct] and I’m really excited – the thing I’m most excited about – is seeing Aussie workers, workers in WA maintaining a UK nuclear-powered submarine, and in fact I’m going over to the UK tomorrow to meet Australian workers working in the UK right now on these projects.

JOURNALIST: Will you be pushing for the Minister for Missiles to become your permanent title?  

MINISTER CONROY: It's my permanent unofficial title, and I'm thinking of getting business cards printed to that effect. Thank you very much everyone. 

ENDS