Aussie PM Holds Press Conference in Osborne, SA
About 40 years ago, the Hawke Government and the Bannon Government, two visionary Labor governments, came together and decided to build a defence precinct here on the Lefevre Peninsula. And it has served obviously the country, almost the world, by securing our naval capabilities. But for the state of South Australia and the community I have the privilege of representing, it has been a huge driver of economic prosperity and of secure, well-paid jobs as well. And two visionary Labor governments are again cooperating through their leaders, our Prime Minister and Premier Malinauskas, to secure that future literally for decades to come. It's incredibly exciting in terms of the country's strategic capability over the coming decades, but as a South Australian, the prosperity, the jobs that it is going to engender are enormously exciting as well. So, I'll hand over to the Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much, Mark, and I'm absolutely delighted to be back here in South Australia and here at the Osborne Shipyards. This is a driver not just of our national security and how we're going to defend our nation into the future, it's also a driver of our economic prosperity, as well as making such an enormous difference to some of the apprentices that we've met here today. Just to give some idea, there will be a thousand apprentices graduating every year from the skills and training centre here, when it's up and running as part of this extraordinary facility here in Adelaide, making an incredible difference. Now, together with the government of South Australia, led so well by Peter Malinauskas, we are combining to benefit the nation, but particularly to emphasise the skills that South Australia has built up over a period of time because of that decision with the Hawke government. It is why South Australia will be a prime beneficiary of the AUKUS arrangements as we go forward, but also of that continuous ship building capacity that Australia wants to see for ourselves.
Here in this submarine construction yard, we'll see almost 10,000 jobs created to design and build the yard and to build nuclear-powered submarines in South Australia. Today we're announcing that my Government will contribute as a down payment $3.9 billion for this project, making an enormous difference. We know that the estimation is that there'll be $30 billion invested here in Adelaide, in South Australia, to make a difference. What that means is jobs when it's all up and running, five and a half thousand direct jobs, but a multiplier of that in indirect jobs and economic activity. I've been coming here now for a few years with the Premier, and when you look at the overall picture and vision which is here, producing assets that will defend Australia as the objective. But on the way through, the vision that the Malinauskas government have had to have those technical colleges, making sure that if you are a young person in South Australia, not just today but over many years to come -- if you're a 15 or 16-year-old thinking about what am I going to do with my life, you can be assured that there'll be well-paid, secure jobs here in Adelaide. And you'll get, as we've spoken to the young apprentices here this morning, you'll get that satisfaction of seeing what you are creating as the product of your labour, and knowing that it is very much your contribution as well to our national interest for decades ahead.
We do live in an uncertain world, but we can be certain of the economic benefit to the tune of $30 billion going forward here in South Australia. And I'm very pleased to be partnering with the Premier. We partnered just a couple of weeks ago on a health and hospitals agreement. We partnered to protect jobs and industry in Whyalla. We partnered to make sure that when schools went back in the last few weeks, there is now a process of full and fair funding for every public school in South Australia. This is a partnership based upon mutual benefit, because a strong South Australia is a strong nation. And the Premier will make sure in coming years that continues to be the case.
PETER MALINAUSKAS, PREMIER: Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much, Prime Minister, and I can't thank you enough not just for being here today as you regularly are, but more importantly being here to announce arguably the most structurally significant contribution to our economy that we will ever see. What has been announced today completely dwarfs some of the investments that we've seen in South Australia's recent past. That boggles the mind. And the amount of work and effort that Vice Admiral Mead and Pat Conroy and Richard Marles have put into this announcement today is something that is not lost on me, and it certainly shouldn't be lost on South Australians. We currently stand in the Osborne South Shipyard where the cutting-edge Hunter-class frigates are now well and truly under construction. The investment here at the Osborne South Shipyard was extraordinary, but it pales into insignificance in comparison to the $30 billion investment that will be associated to the construction of the yard that will build the nation's nuclear submarines that will protect our country for generations.
This infrastructure alone, $30 billion before a single widget on the submarine is built, is something that will set our economy up well and truly for the next decade and beyond. The submarine construction yard has three separate components, all in increasingly higher degrees of sophistication as you approach Area 3, which will be the nuclear area, which of course has the biggest amount of expense associated with it. But the biggest hall, the Fabrication Hall, will dwarf this massive building that we're in right now. This facility where we stand is 180 metres long. The fabrication hall will be 420 metres long. It will be so large that not even Bryson DeChambeau could hit the ball from one end to the other. It's hard to comprehend just how much steel and structural concrete will be invested in this new facility. So, let me give you a bit of context.
The whole of the Osborne South Shipyard required one and a half million work hours to construct. The new submarine construction yard will take 66 million work hours. When we think about structural concrete, this facility has 55,000 cubic metres of structural concrete. The new facility will have 710,000. Structural steel, much of which will be sourced from Whyalla, 9,400 tonnes in this whole precinct, not just this building, the whole precinct. In the new facility, 126,000 tonnes. So, we are talking about many multiples of the amount of work and the amount of materials that will be required to build the world's most advanced nuclear submarine construction yard. When it is complete, we will have the capacity to be home to five and a half thousand direct jobs, 10,000 indirect jobs, all highly skilled, highly paid, which means for generations of future South Australians, their economic security, their living standard is assured.
This is a game-changing project. There were 1,200 people working at Holden when it closed. 4,000 will be required to construct this facility and it'll be home to five and a half thousand every single day after it is opened and the submarine construction starts. It's hard for South Australians to genuinely comprehend the amount of work, high-paid, secure work that is coming our way. Which is why I'm so grateful that we've also had the partnership with the Commonwealth around training and skills, and we might yet have more to say about this in the not too distant future. But this is line in the sand moment for the future of our state. We now just have to simply commit ourselves to the extraordinary opportunity we have before us and bring it to life for the benefit of the living standards of future generations of our people. The amount of work that's gone into this is incomprehensibly large. The team at ANI and ASA and the Defence Department, I can't thank them enough. Pat, of course, day-to-day is across all of that detail, and I want to thank Minister Conroy for being here today along with all his work and invite him to speak next.
PAT CONROY, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY: Thank you Premier, Prime Minister, Minister Butler. It's a real pleasure to be here for this historic moment. We've got 100,000 patriotic Australians already working in the defence industry throughout this country, and the AUKUS project will generate 20,000 more high-skilled, secure jobs throughout this country. And as the Premier and the Prime Minister have said, 10,000 of those jobs will be here on this site alone. So, a massive boost to already a very significant industry in Australia. Importantly, when this shipyard is constructed and when it's finished, it will be the only shipyard in the Southern Hemisphere capable of constructing nuclear-powered submarines, the only shipyard in the Southern Hemisphere that can build nuclear-powered submarines. So, that will be a massive achievement for the people of Australia and the people of SA in particular.
Importantly, this will modernise Aussie manufacturing as we go through it, because it's not just the 10,000 jobs here. We've got 70 companies already going through the qualification process to win work, supplying not just Australian submarines, but UK and US submarines, and I announced late last year that Pacific Marine batteries just down the road, which already supplies batteries for the UK Astute submarines, will be supplying batteries for SSN AUKUS. Not just our submarines, but the new UK submarines. So, these are the high skill, high wage jobs that are being generated through this activity that will also modernise Australian manufacturing. Importantly, SA's contribution to the defence industry isn't just limited to ship and submarine construction. Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Albanese and the Premier, this truly is the defence state. Late last year, I opened Australia's first missile factory in 60 years with the Premier just one hour down the road at Port Wakefield, and we are building missiles in this state, in this country for the first time in 60 years. So, this is truly a future made in Australia, a defence future made in Australia through the ingenuity and hard work of South Australians and all Australians.
PRIME MINISTER: Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned the initial $3.9 billion downpayment. When do you expect the rest of the investment to flow?
PRIME MINISTER: I expect it to flow continuously, just like the jobs. Continuous naval ship building will result in continuous investment here in South Australia.
JOURNALIST: How likely is it the project will exceed the $30 billion pipeline due to rising construction costs?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they're the figures that have come from the authority itself. $30 billion is the estimate. We'll continue of course, as this rolls out, to provide that investment, $3.9 billion upfront as a down payment. That's for the early works that will be required as well. We are already off and running here, whether it be the investment in infrastructure here or whether it's investment in people through the skills and training agenda that will be required.
JOURNALIST: You talk about people. How much of a challenge is to be able to find those thousands of workers to be able to [INDISTINCT]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I tell you what, they're pretty keen, the workers who I've met here today, and one of the things that will happen, just like for previous generations in South Australia, the car industry provided a real focal point and you had intergenerational skills. There are people here, the young women who we met, one of whom was 20. She has a job here for life. Just think about that. In today's world where technology changes the nature of work, what this provides here is an opportunity for people to say, this is what I am going to do. For the rest of my life, I will have a secure job. It will be highly paid and it will be rewarding as we go forward.
JOURNALIST: [INDISTINCT]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we'll do is we always have appropriate security. But you might've noticed that one of the things that we have are done through BAE as well is take some of the skills that have been produced there. I've been to the facility, as has the Premier, as has the Minister there in the north of England. There will be some transfer and some interaction between the BAE systems people, which is natural, so that those skills are imparted.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Premier has often said that the biggest challenge for this project is developing enough skilled workers. What's your message to other state leaders about that challenge, but also the opportunities that this project?
PRIME MINISTER: This represents an extraordinary opportunity for people to have good, secure, well-paid jobs. The fact that we are setting up here on-site this skills centre, that will make an enormous difference. Producing a thousand apprentices each and every year will make an enormous difference. And one of the things that my Government has concentrated on is making sure, unlike the previous government that never talked about TAFE. You can Google Hansard for some of the leaders of -- my predecessors, the three Liberal prime ministers, and see how often they talk about TAFE. It was dismissed. The truth is that we have now some 725,000 Australians enrolled in free TAFE courses. They are starting to graduate now. It has changed the nature of the way that we deal with building up a skilled workforce. The $10,000 electrical apprenticeship payments that we introduced as part of our 2022 election commitments, what we've done is extend that across the construction sector as well so that people who are working here will have that incentive as will going forward in construction and electrical. If you provide the right incentives, what you can have is good, well-paid, secure jobs going forward, and what we're seeing is people taking it up.
JOURNALIST: [INDISTINCT]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think people in the Liberal party will despair that Sussan Ley, elected as leader of the Liberal party just months ago, wasn't even given the opportunity to give one Budget Reply speech. It's up to the Liberal party, of course, to defend their own internal processes. But the truth is that if you look at the Government and then what some see as the alternative government, my Government has a majority of women in our caucus. We have a majority of women around our Cabinet table. That includes two outstanding South Australian women in Penny Wong and Amanda Rishworth in very senior roles in our government. And you compare that with what we've seen on the other side of politics, and they just don't seem to get it. We want a parliament that looks like Australia and that's why the diversity in our ranks as well means that we're stronger. And I think it's no accident that a government that has more than 50 per cent women in it has prioritised closing the gender pay gap that's at a record low, making sure that feminised industries such as childcare and aged care get proper wage increases, which is what we have delivered, that we have the largest ever women's health program, particularly focusing on issues like reproductive health. The fact that we're the first government in decades to list a new contraceptive on the PBS is quite frankly extraordinary. So, we continue to focus, because gender equity is something that's a focus of my Government. We've appointed women to senior roles, including of course Her Excellency, the Governor General, but also as head of Treasury, head of the Reserve Bank, head of ASIC. We continue to make sure that we're a government that represents all Australians. I think when you look at the Liberal party and the National Party, they seek to talk about themselves and represent each other.
JOURNALIST: Can I just ask an either-or question? What's your message to critics of an Adelaide-based nuclear-powered submarine, people who argue that it's both unaffordable and unachievable?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is affordable. That's why we're providing tough decisions, in our Budget, in our fiscal policy, but we're also making sure that Australia can defend ourselves. We inherited a Defence department that had rolling ministers. We had no consistency. We had announcements and then nothing happened. We had to pay the French billions of dollars to not build anything for Australia. We had an agreement prior to that with the Japanese. It rolled around. What we're doing as Minister Conroy has said is to actually deliver, whether it be the investment here, the investment in missiles, the investment in projects like Ghost Bat, these things are making an enormous difference as well. We don't just talk about defence. We're delivering real capability.
JOURNALIST: The US [INDISTINCT]. How confident are you that they [INDISTINCT]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're very confident. And I've sat down with President Trump in person, as you will have seen, and had a number of discussions with the President, but other members of the administration as well. This is in the interest of the United States, in the interest of the UK and in the interest of Australia, and that is why this is a project that is progressing in accordance with not just the principles but the plan of action, which we are rolling out. When we came to office, when I became Prime Minister, and that was in a day when Oppositions actually backed government policy when it was appropriate to do so. We did that. I did that as Opposition leader, but we inherited essentially a framework without the detail or the substance underneath it. What we've done is deliver the substance and the detail and we're doing that here again today.
JOURNALIST: [INDISTINCT]
PRIME MINISTER: We'll have our budget in May and what we've done when it comes to tax, the policy that we have is to deliver a tax cut in July for all 14 million Australian workers and another one the year after. Angus Taylor led the charge to not only oppose our tax cuts, but to say that he would legislate if he had have been elected Treasurer in the election less than a year ago, that he would legislate to actually increase the taxes for all 14 million Australians. That's the big tax debate here in Australia. A government that is committed to lowering taxes for working people, particularly targeted at lower middle income earners, which is why we're lowering that first marginal tax rate. And Angus Taylor, who went to the election as shadow treasurer with higher taxes and bigger deficits.
JOURNALIST: [INDISTINCT]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Angus must have been beside himself when he was a Minister in the government. Because he had in the figures that were released in 2019 in the MYEFO, a plan that by 2030 there would've been 754,000 more people here under the Liberals and Nationals, than what we are projecting.
JOURNALIST: [INDISTINCT]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they're not staying as they are. We've reduced them. We've cut migration by 40 per cent in a year. Thanks.
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-osborne-sa
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