Radio Interview, ABC Adelaide Breakfast

SUBJECTS: Hunter class frigates keel laying, AUKUS.

RORY MCCLAREN, HOST: Pat Conroy is the Minister for Defence Industries at a federal level. He joins you now. Minister, welcome.

MINISTER CONROY: Good morning.

MCCLAREN: Minister, you're making your way out to Osborne this morning. It is the ceremonial keel laying for the first of six Hunter class frigates. Why should South Australians care about this project given the turbulence that it's faced to this point in time?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, South Australia should care about this project because it is creating 3,000 direct, high-skill, well-paying, secure jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs. So, that's 8,000 jobs, the vast majority of which will be in South Australia building the most advanced anti-submarine frigate in the world as part of our efforts to more than double the size of the Royal Australian Navy. So, this is a great day for the Australian Defence Force and it's a great day for South Australian workers in what is truly the Defence state.

SONYA FELDHOFF, HOST: Is it, is it a really heavy keel? Because there are concerns about how heavy these frigates are going to be.

MINISTER CONROY: Well, there were decisions made early on in the process about 10 years ago to modify a British design, the Type 26 frigate and include a US combat system and the most advanced radars in the world, which are actually made in Canberra. So, those decisions have added weight to the ship, but they've also added capability to the ship so that it can't, it's not just restricted to hunting submarines. It will be very effective in defending both itself and escorting ships against air attacks. So, this is a very complex project, but it's creating 8,000 jobs and giving the Navy the best anti-submarine hunter in the world.

MCCLAREN: Minister, by increasing the displacement of the ship from the reference design, which was about 8,000 tonne to more than 10,000 tonne. Does that make it difficult to upgrade in the future?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, the growth margins are there. So, when you build ships you have growth margins to add on new systems…

MCCLAREN: Which have been eaten into as a part of this design process.

MINISTER CONROY: They have, they have. We’re being very honest and transparent about it, unlike the last Government that made most of these decisions without telling the Australian people. But the end result of that is that we've got a better combat system and we've got the most advanced radars in the world made in Australia. So, the capability benefit is there for people to see. So, this design is important for the Navy. It complements what we're doing with the air warfare destroyer upgrade that's going well again at Osborne, and the construction of 11 general purpose frigates that will lead to more than doubling the Royal Australian Navy. So, this is a project that’s had challenges, that's the truth about it. But we've put it back on track under this Government and this is a momentous day for both the Navy and the state and the nation.

FELDHOFF: Ok. And so are we still on track in terms of the frigate side of things to deliver in 2032?

MINISTER CONROY: Yeah, we're on track for it to be delivered in 2032, to go through its commissioning for the Royal Australian Navy. And we will then have a drumbeat of roughly building a new frigate every two years, so that we have six of the Hunter class frigates. And importantly, as part of the Albanese Labor Government's commitment to continuous naval shipbuilding, there won't be a gap at the end of this program, which we've seen in previous projects. The very skilled workforce that, as I said, will be 3,000 direct and 5,000 indirect, will then move into building the replacement for the Hobart class air warfare destroyer, because we can build ships as competitively and efficiently as anywhere else in the world. But you need a regular drumbeat of demand from the Federal Government to do that, and that's what the Albanese Labor Government is doing.

FELDHOFF: You're listening to 891 ABC Adelaide, with you, Sonya Feldhoff and Rory McClaren. Jules on the sick list. You're listening to the voice of Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry. So, speaking of workforces and being on track, you're going to be out there at Osborne with the frigates, but not far from there, still on Osborne, is where the AUKUS project is unfolding and getting underway. Are we on track in terms of the massive workforce that you've conceded is necessary to deliver that project?

MINISTER CONROY: Yes, we are. I was there only a few weeks ago with the Premier and the Deputy Prime Minister announcing another significant investment in the actual Osborne naval construction yard, the submarine construction yard. But across the road, I could see the skills and training academy appearing before my eyes. So, we're on track. The Albanese Labor Government's doing something that's quite novel. We're actually training Australians to build these projects rather than poaching them from other industries. And that skills and training academy will graduate 1000 people each year. So 1,000 people will go through that academy each year, which will be critical to the workforce, not just for the submarines, but for other naval projects, because the construction, there'll be five and a half thousand jobs directly employed building the AUKUS class submarines. So, that's a really important project. This is nation shaping, doing the most advanced manufacturing in the world and it's a great replacement for the automotive industry that the last Government chased out of Australia, sadly.

FELDHOFF: Pat Conroy, thank you for that. Minister for Defence Industry. 

ENDS