Television Interview, ABC Afternoon Briefing

SUBJECTS: Landing craft contract announcement, Osborne announcement, board of peace

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Over in the west, the Federal Government has announced the signing of contracts for the building of army vessels which they say will produce hundreds of jobs. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy has just been making the announcement, and he is joining me right now in hi-vis. Hello and welcome.

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Hi PK, how are you?

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Good. You look safe. You've announced Austal has received a $4 billion contract to first deliver 18 landing craft medium vessels and build them at Henderson Shipyard. Are you confident they'll deliver?

MINISTER CONROY: I am confident. In fact, there's two contracts. There's $1 billion for landing craft medium, another $4 billion for landing craft heavy vessels. Combined this will drive 3,000 secure high skilled jobs as part of the transformation of the Australian Army into one focused on littoral manoeuvre or amphibious manoeuvre and long-range strike. So, this is a big day for a defence future made in Australia.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Is Austal likely to build the Mogami frigates at Henderson too?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, they are our strategic shipbuilder and we've entered into an agreement for the two landing craft projects. What we've said is we're committed to continuous naval shipbuilding in WA. So, the Mogami class will be on-shored and built in WA after the first few have been built in Japan. Whether it's possible, they have to demonstrate a value for money and continued efficiencies and productivity through that continuous naval shipbuilding approach. But they are in a good position if they can deliver on the two landing craft projects.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Okay, so that's the metric for whether the other project happens.

MINISTER CONROY: Absolutely. So, the project Mogami will definitely happen at Henderson in WA. And we have signed a strategic shipbuilding agreement with Austal. But our commitment at this stage is the two landing craft projects. If they can ramp up and deliver those, then they're in a very good position to deliver the Mogami class. But it's important that we hold them to account, for their performance before we sign that next contract.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Okay. There was also a big announcement in South Australia over the last week. Have you mandated minimal - minimum content on the South Australian projects linked to union jobs?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, the infrastructure investment through the $30 billion investment in the Osborne Port to be only the, the sorry, the only ship submarine construction yard in the southern hemisphere that can build nuclear powered submarines is a huge announcement. That will deliver thousands of well-paid high skilled jobs in South Australia. Around 4,000 jobs in construction and then five-and-a-half thousand jobs building the submarines themselves.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Yeah, but how about the actual mandating of union jobs? Has that happened?

MINISTER CONROY: Well no, there will be commitments around local content. But typically, federal government contracts don't mandate that they have to be unionised. In fact, there's arguments around freedom of association that we have to respect. What we mandate is local content. What we say is a minimum percentage has to be done in Australia so that we drive secure, well-paid jobs. That's our commitment.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Yeah, but when you talk about local content, as you just did have those discussions included unions and the sort of leaders of unions?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, unions are involved. We are unashamedly taking a tripartite approach to our commitment to defending this country. Just as the companies, the defence industry companies are important, so are the workers. They are vital. We cannot deliver these projects without the workers and the unions that represent them. So, for example, later today I'll be having lunch with, with delegates from the shipbuilding union. So, that's unions like the Manufacturing Workers Union and the Electrical Trades Union because they're going to be critical to delivering these projects.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just want to move to a couple of other issues if I can, Minister. US President Donald Trump has now given Iran a 10-day deadline when it comes to abandoning its ambitions to have nuclear weapons. He says they'll face military strikes if they don't do that. It does heighten the risk of war. Is Australia concerned?

MINISTER CONROY: We're very focused on peace and security, not just in our region but throughout the world. And obviously we've, we're very strongly committed to nuclear non-proliferation and we think the world is a better place if no more nations secure nuclear weapons. But obviously we'll see how the negotiations go between the US administration and the government of Iran.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Okay. But Washington is obviously stepping up the deployment of military force in the Middle East, and Trump has told a gathering of the Board of Peace that we do have some work to do with Iran and really bad things will happen if the Islamic Republic doesn't make a deal. Does that alarm you?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, what alarms me is the world getting more nuclear weapons. And so we urge all parties to resolve these issues peacefully. And our honest desire is that negotiations are successful and that we have no further nuclear proliferation.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: On that board of peace, Australia's not involved yet, but clearly the president wants nations to be involved. He said today that almost everybody's accepted, and the ones that haven't will be, and some are playing a little cute. He says, you can't play cute with me. Is Australia playing cute?

MINISTER CONROY: We're considering the invitation from President Trump to join the board of peace, but we haven't made a decision yet. And we'll just go through it through an orderly, measured process. This is a cabinet government that Prime Minister Albanese is inordinately proud of, that we make decisions in a deliberate, orderly manner. And you'll see that in this issue as well.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Okay. It's just weird that it hasn't been made yet, given it's had its first meeting. Why has there been a delay? Why not just make a call about it?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I would reject the assertion of the timeliness of that rather. We're just going through in a reasonable way, as you'd expect a mature adult government to do that. That's what the citizens of Australia want us to do. That's why they returned us at the election last year. And we'll do it in a measured way, as we do on all matters, particularly issues around national security. The announcement today is another example of us taking a calm, measured approach to these issues rather than making decisions through a political lens, which is what the last government did.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Ok. Just on, on the board of peace still, we could have sent an observer, but we didn't. Why didn't we?

MINISTER CONROY: Oh, look, that's a, that's a question for other Ministers. That's not in my portfolio. But we are still considering the offer from President Trump, and when there's a decision made, we'll let people know.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just on another issue, Minister, and I know it's outside your portfolio, but you're a cabinet minister, so I reckon I can ask you anything. That's, that's my rule, anyway. The Prime Minister is -

MINISTER CONROY: You're welcome to ask me anything PK.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: I know you've never put restrictions on to be very fair to you. The Prime Minister says the former Prince Andrew has suffered an extraordinary fall, and I don't know anyone who would disagree with that, but that it won't prompt another discussion about a republic or a discussion about a republic. Why not?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, our priority is on the priorities of the Australian people, which is more cost-of-living measures to provide more cost-of-living relief, investing in a future made in Australia, supporting national security through our record investment in defence, investing in health care. They're the priorities of the Australian people. They're the priorities of the people in my electorate. I'm a proud republican. I come from an Irish-Catholic background. I'm a proud republican. I voted yes to the republic in 1998. But when I'm at street stalls in my electorate of Shortland, it's not what people are focused on. They're focused on our investments in healthcare, support for cost of living, defence, future and investing in manufacturing. So, I think that's what we're going to focus on listening to the people and acting on their priorities.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Thank you so much for joining us, Minister.

MINISTER CONROY: Thanks, PK. Have a great afternoon.

ENDS