DAVID PENBERTHY: Senator Penny Wong, joins us now.
SENATOR PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Good morning, Penbo.
PENBERTHY: Setting the party politics of this aside, what do you think is actually happening?
WONG: I think that the Government is going to break its promise and we are about to see a decision thats made which doesnt centre around an Adelaide build and which doesnt centre around an Australian design for the submarines.
We need to remember two things that this is the biggest purchase, the biggest procurement decision that the Australian Government will make, the submarine project. The second is, I think this is important for South Australia and our economy and our jobs. In the long term its an even bigger decision than Holden and we already know its such a big hit on our state.
PENBERTHY: We saw that Tony Abbott was in town over the weekend and I just stress again that weve asked David Johnston the Defence Minister to come on today but so far he has declined but Mr Abbott was talking about decisions being made on the basis not of parochialism or with a view to assisting any particular part of Australia, rather pure economics. Did you view those comments as a softening up exercise?
WONG: Absolutely and importantly they are completely the opposite of what was said before the election. I mean, Mr Abbott and David Johnston the Defence Minister told South Australians very clearly that well build submarines here in Adelaide. Since that time theyve refused to repeat that commitment. Question Time yesterday, as you discussed, we spoke about this a lot and we put back to the Minister, David Johnston, the same quote, his quote from before the election where he made the commitment but he wouldnt repeat it. He kept dancing around avoiding the question.
But the more important issue is this I dont think anybody is saying that we should just make a decision to give someone a contract who cant do the job. What the Government is saying is theyre really showing a lack of confidence in Australian industry and we know weve got a lot of skilled people, weve got a lot of people who have spent a lot of time on both the Collins and other ship builds and the Government is looking like it wants to walk away from those people, those industries and those skills. Its not just about jobs today, its actually about our economy and jobs for decades to come.
PENBERTHY: Isnt part of the problem here though and maybe you guys should have been much more vigilant about this when you were in Government, that the ASC has had a pretty ignoble record when it comes in terms of meeting its budget and meeting its deadlines?
WONG: Look, I was the shareholder Minister for the ASC, as the Finance Minister and we did a lot of work with Stephen Smith, the Defence Minister and the company to improve its performance. I think there are a lot of myths out there about the Submarine Corporation by some people whove got a different agenda but the primary problem was the length of maintenance time and that obviously reduced submarine availability time. There were a lot of changes put in place, a big shift in how they operated and I think the workers out there ought to be congratulated and the management because there was a substantial improvement.
What we are seeing is a Coalition Government walking away from South Australia yet again and what Id like to say and I know you said dont be too partisan but I do think its time that some of the South Australian Liberals start to stand up for our state. Nick Minchin and Alexander Downer, Robert Hill and Amanda Vanstone did under the previous Coalition Government and you had people, South Australians in the Federal Government, the Federal Labor Government stood up for South Australia but where is Christopher Pyne, where is Jamie Briggs, Simon Birmingham when it comes to these decisions that are so important for South Australias economy?
PENBERTHY: That is true. In John Howards first term when the Productivity Commission recommended 0 per cent tariffs for the car industry a whole list of South Australian Liberals, many of whom you just mentioned, spoke out publicly against the Productivity Commission report and helped force Peter Costellos hand and they rejected the proposals. Jane you had a question
WONG: Thats right
JANE REILLY: No, Ill let the Senator respond.
WONG: No, no, you go ahead Jane.
REILLY: Penny, I was going to say that you cant help but feel South Australia is in a very grim position when you would have thought that some of the workers leaving Holden may have transitioned into the Submarine Corporation with their skills there. We could end up with thousands more people on the dole.
WONG: Well, thats right. Youve both got the workers today in the auto sector who are facing a challenging time, a pretty grim future for some of them and they need all of the help that we can give them but its also about the future of the South Australian economy. We have to have advanced manufacturing, advanced engineering capability in our state. We have to have an economy that has those skills and those capacities, if were going to succeed in a pretty competitive global market and we always saw as a Government, shipbuilding which includes the submarine project as a critical part of that.
Its not just the jobs for workers involved in design and construction. Its also the skills in your economy because we all know what sort of spin off effects that has in terms of other opportunities. If you take this out of the South Australian economy its a very bad future for our state and we really need to make sure the Government doesnt make this decision.
PENBERTHY: Senator Penny Wong, thank you for joining us this morning.
WONG: Good to speak with you all.
ENDS