SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE, SENATOR STEPHEN CONROY: Were here today because of the extraordinary revelation that was uncovered last night at Senate Estimates. Im here with almost the entire ALP South Australian team because of the impact of the clear broken promise that was uncovered last night at Senate Estimates.
Marise Payne, when asked whether or not Tony Abbotts promise to the people of South Australia to build the Offshore Patrol Vessels in South Australia, starting from 2018 that was guaranteed, that it was actually a clause in the tender documents for the build were released last November, Marise Payne said no, it is not a requirement.
But Tony Abbott went to Adelaide in August last year and he promised the people of South Australia, the workforce of the ASC, that the build would start in Adelaide because as Senator Wong also uncovered this week at Senate Estimates, there will be 1300 jobs lost at the ASC if those Offshore Patrol Vessels are not built.
So this was an extraordinary back down, an extraordinary crawling away from Tony Abbotts solemn promise to the people of South Australia that the start of the Offshore Patrol Vessels would be in Adelaide from 2018 and then the Frigates would start in 2020. So I might pass over to Penny at this point to talk through the implications for South Australia that she uncovered.
SENATOR PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Thanks very much. Sadly it seems that the Turnbull Government is as bad for South Australia as Tony Abbott was. And thats disappointing, because I think South Australians were hoping for something better, but the history of broken promises, in the short period weve seen for Mr Turnbull, is just the same as it was from Mr Abbott. Lets remember that history. Before the last election, the Liberals promised South Australians that the submarines would be built in Adelaide. They walked away from that promise. Then Tony Abbott promised South Australians the Offshore Patrol Vessels would be built in Adelaide from commencement. Now theyve broken that promise under Mr Turnbull.
Time and again we see the Liberals tell South Australians one thing then do another. And it is very disappointing that Mr Turnbull has allowed this to occur, because when it comes to South Australian shipbuilding jobs hes no better than Tony Abbott.
I just want to reiterate what Stephen said about the jobs that will be lost at ASC. It was made very clear earlier this week in Senate Estimates that there will be over a thousand jobs go, from an organisation that has already lost nearly a thousand jobs, if we dont get the Offshore Patrol Vessel build in Adelaide. 1300 jobs was the evidence and thats 1300 families.
Now I might hand over briefly to Mark Butler, who has been such a strong advocate, along with all of my South Australian colleagues, for shipbuilding jobs in South Australia. We understand, given the decisions that this Government has made in relation to the auto sector and manufacturing more broadly just how tough it is when it comes to South Australian jobs. And we are strong advocates for ensuring that this Government honours its promises to the people of South Australia when it comes to shipbuilding jobs in Adelaide.
MARK BUTLER, MEMBER FOR PORT ADELAIDE: Thank you, Penny.Thank you, Stephen. For 30years, until very recently, theworld-class ship and submarinebuilding facility at Osborne inPort Adelaide in South Australia was abipartisan nation buildingproject.Yet over the lastcouple of years we have seenbroken promise after brokenpromise unravel that project.
As Penny and Stephen have said,the promise to build 12submarines in Adelaide wasoverturned by Tony Abbott. Andthe most recent promise toensure that the Offshore PatrolVessels, the OPVs, would startin Adelaide in 2018 to avoidthe valley of death, again hasnow been overturned by theDefence Minister.
SouthAustralians are just gettingsick of this litany of brokenpromises by the Abbott andTurnbull Governments. And it'stime now for Malcolm Turnbullto state very clearly, is hegoing to back in the positionthat Tony Abbott stated soclearly to the South Australiancommunity only six or sevenmonths ago, or is he going tobreak that promise too?
JOURNALIST: Do we know now where theyre going to be built?
CONROY: Look at this stage Marise Payne would give no indication whatsoever. What was clear was that theyve got no intention of keeping the promise that Tony Abbott made in August last year. He took the entire Cabinet to Adelaide. They had a huge announcement. There was going to be all this work. This was all about repairing the damage from his first broken promise to do with submarines. It was all because theyve helped drive the car industry out of South Australia. So last night, when asked to recommit to the promise that Tony Abbott made only six months ago to the people of South Australia, Marise Payne crawled away from it.
JOURNALIST: In fairness, Tony Abbott sort of promised the OPVs to every state, didnt he? He went on radio and travelled around the country and said every state is going to get a shot at the OPVs.
CONROY: It wasnt just in Adelaide that he made this promise. If you go to Hansard, three or four times on Hansard in the Parliament of Australia, Tony Abbott repeated his promise; the Offshore Patrol Vessels would start in South Australia to fill that gap that is now going to take place as the Air Warfare Destroyer workforce tapers off and before the 2020 start of the Frigates. Only one contract can fill that gap and that is why Tony Abbott didnt just say it once, didnt just say it twice, he said it about five times, he made that promise. Last night was the chance for Marise Payne to keep that promise. So the people of South Australia who have had to endure the Liberal Coalition Government pushing the car industry out of South Australia, promising and breaking the submarines 12 submarines then it was only going to be eight submarines. Weve all seen the now Turnbull Government has form when it comes to breaking promises that they solemnly made to the people of South Australia.
JOURNALIST: Is it a sensible decision though? I mean, other states like WA have demonstrated that they can build ships and vessels on time and on budget. Why shouldnt states like WA get a shot at building OPVs and even submarines?
CONROY: The issue here is the promise that was made by Tony Abbott. So lets not try and get side-tracked by completing claims. Tony Abbott cut through the competing claims. He said we will start the OPV build, the Offshore Patrol Vessel build in Adelaide because we need to fill the hole. Marise Payne had the opportunity last night to recommit to that promise. But its worse than just the Minister crawling away from the promise. When we asked the official in charge of the tender process has the Government kept its promise and instructed in the tender that the OPVs are to be built in Adelaide we forced the admission finally from Marise Payne no she said. Its all there, on the Hansard, on tape, for people to view. When asked did you require the contract, the tender documents, to keep Tony Abbotts promise to the people of South Australia, the answer was no.
JOURNALIST: This may be for one of the South Australian Senators or MPs. I cant remember how many tens of millions of dollars were spent on Techport. Whats become of the place?
BUTLER: I might answer that. As I said this has been a 30 year project, started in the 1980s by the Hawke Government and the Bannon Government, to build a world-class ship and submarine building facility. An extraordinary amount of capital has been invested there by the Commonwealth Government over a period of three decades, but also by the South Australian Government and by industry. And so ensuring that there is not this valley of death after the completion of the AWD Project is an important national interest. We have invested extraordinary numbers of years and dollars in making sure we have this facility in Port Adelaide and a commencement of OPV work in 2018 is a critical element of ensuring that that is sustainable into the future.
JOURNALIST: If Labor was to win Government this year, can you untangle what the Government has done and what would you do with the OPVs?
CONROY: Weve got to see what the contractual arrangements are. Weve got to see where they are in the process. We dont have the knowledge we need to be able to work this out until we get into Government. Its Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull who have the case to answer here. They made a promise and now Malcolm Turnbull is breaking the promise that was made to the people of South Australia. Theres no getting away from it. Theres no trying to shift the blame. Theres no trying to muddy the waters on this. A solemn promise was made to the people of South Australia and Malcolm Turnbull is breaking it. The people of South Australia should be under no illusions that there will be over a thousand job losses because of this broken promise. Officials from the ASC were very clear despite the best efforts of the Minister trying to gag them; they will have a skeleton workforce if they dont have the OPVs. And that was the promise and thats what Malcolm Turnbull is doing to the people of South Australia.
JOURNALIST: Is Labors policy to have all the work on the OPVs in Adelaide?
CONROY: Well I think the promise that was made was that the work needed to start there because when you have the submarines come online, the Frigates come online, there is a genuine issue of capacity. There is enough work. The great tragedy of whats happened now under now three Defence Ministers in the last two and a half years is that there was enough work to keep all of the dockyards in Australia with work. You have Forgacs, who has just been sold, whose workforce is under threat of being retrenched. Williamstown dockyard in my home state is down from 1400 people to barely a couple of hundred over the next month or so. Theyve already lost nearly a thousand jobs. The Governments first decision and no one should forget this the first decision this Government made when it came to shipbuilding was to direct the shipbuilding for two major significant supply vessels large jobs could only be tendered for by South Korea and Spain. So they actually took a decision to say no Australian company was allowed to tender. From that moment the outcome of the valley of death became a certainty; there wasnt going to be enough work around the country, there wasnt going to be enough work in Adelaide. So once they took that decision the dominos have started to fall. Job losses in Newcastle, job losses in Williamstown, job losses in Adelaide. There was enough work right across the country for all of these vessels to keep all of those workforces going, and all of the capital, all the skills that people have built up over many years, they are being lost to the sector and tragically being lost to Australia.
JOURNALIST: So as I understand it, weve got a new Defence Minister making her decisions on these OPVs, youre complaining about this decision, this statement that was made by Tony Abbott but youre not prepared to say how much of this OPV work should be in Adelaide?
CONROY: We welcomed his announcement that the beginning of the work would be in South Australia. We welcomed that. We were very comfortable with that promise. But whats happening is theyre breaking that promise and were saying theyve got to be held to that account. So we welcomed the announcement that was made; it gave some certainty to Adelaide but it also gave an opportunity for other companies to be part of that overall build. What were seeing now is the promise the part of the promise to South Australia is being broken. Thats the issue today. We were comfortable with that promise but they are breaking that promise. Malcolm Turnbull is breaking the hearts of the people of South Australia by crawling away from this promise that was made.