ANDREW BELLAMY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF AUSTAL:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Senator Linda Reynolds, Mr Luke Simpkins, Member for Cowan and Commodore Peter Lockwood, representing CDF.
Austal welcomes you here today at a critical time for the Australian shipbuilding industry. The move to a continuous shipbuilding plan, which you announced earlier this month, is a transformative change for the sustainability of Australia’s naval shipbuilding industry.
It’s also a vote of confidence in the engineers, naval architects and talented tradesmen and women who are the backbone of this industry, as well as thousands of local companies in the supply chains that support complex manufacturing in the country.
Western Australia has a long and proud tradition of shipbuilding and sustainment. The Australian Maritime Complex here in Henderson has some of the world’s best and most advanced facilities and West Australians have built all of the Commonwealth’s patrol boats for the past 17 years. And, Prime Minister, I can tell you the workforce here are mighty keen to continue the tradition and get involved with upcoming frigate and OPV programmes which have been brought forward by your Government. That is why Austal is looking forward to participating in the Competitive Evaluation Process for both frigates and OPVs.
Prime Minister, the foresight the Government has shown with the continuous build programme will not only preserve important skills and capability in the Australian workforce, it will also drive productivity improvements that are essential to creating an internationally competitive, export capable shipbuilding industry. For more than 25 years this yard here in Henderson has exported ships around the world and continues to do so today.
Austal takes considerable pride in the fact that we are Australia’s only global defence prime contractor and the only Australian naval shipbuilder winning competitive international tenders to export defence vessels.
The Corvette sized auxiliary support vessels you’ve seen today are being built for the Royal Navy of Oman, they’re very similar to the JHSV we’re building right now for the US Navy in our yard in Alabama and I can tell you with the Aussie dollar where it is today, it’s more economical to build these ships here in Australia than it is to build them in the US.
Prime Minister, thank you for visiting Austal today to see firsthand what Australian shipbuilders can really do and we compete with the best in the world.
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m really pleased to be here at Austal. Thank you, Andrew Bellamy for those words. Great to be here with Luke Simpkins, with Senator Linda Reynolds.
Great to be here at an Australian manufacturing success story, an Australian shipbuilding success story, an Australian naval shipbuilding success story because what was announced the other day is a historic moment for Australia. We will move from episodic naval shipbuilding to a continuous fleet build. This is going to be good for our defences, it's going to be good for our sophisticated manufacturing. It's going to be good for jobs and it's going to be good for our country.
Yes, it will be good for South Australia where the frigates will be built, very good for South Australia, but it will also be good for other centres of shipbuilding in Australia, including Western Australia and I'm very much looking forward to Austal as Australia's profitable, successful, naval shipbuilder being involved in this work.
Really, this is very much part of a government which is committed to jobs, growth and community safety by moving from episodic shipbuilding, by moving from the stop-start, boom-bust ways of the past. We are going to promote economic strength here, we're going to promote jobs here and we're going to promote national security here and I'm very proud of that.
I'm going to ask Linda Reynolds – former Brigadier Linda Reynolds – and then I’m going to ask Luke Simpkins – former Major Luke Simpkins to support these remarks.
SENATOR LINDA REYNOLDS:
Thank you very much, Prime Minister.
It's wonderful to welcome the Prime Minister here today to Henderson and to show him firsthand that manufacturing in Australia does have a bright future, because here in West Australia, Prime Minister, we are living proof that – and you've seen today the men and women of Western Australia working in the manufacturing sector producing the best in the world in shipbuilding and also in heavy manufacturing.
A little-known fact is that in Western Australia for the last 14 years we've had five per cent growth every year in manufacturing and, in fact, Prime Minister we now export over $20 billion worth of manufacturing products from Western Australia.
So, I'm really grateful you've taken the time to come here, see the men and women making the ships of the future. I think it's a very strong message. West Australia has for too long perhaps kept our light under the bushel in terms of our manufacturing capability and it's a credit to you, Prime Minister, you've come today and seen and talked to the men and women and we're very happy to have you here, and thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Linda. Luke?
LUKE SIMPKINS:
It is great to have our boss here. He's demonstrated today that he really does understand the capabilities, the effectiveness of the great shipbuilding industry here in Western Australia. And we look forward to not just Austal, but the industry here in Perth being able to be part of that, not just builds of the future, but also the sustainability. So the Prime Minister has certainly demonstrated he understands that and it's great to have him here.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much.
Ok, do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, given as Mr Bellamy mentioned and for the past 17 years, Austal has built the Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Commonwealth, why not just announce the contract with them now?
PRIME MINISTER:
There's going to be a Competitive Evaluation Process. We'll start that in October and we very much hope that Austal will be involved. Under what we're doing there'll be more ships more soon than would otherwise have been the case. We've brought forward the Offshore Patrol Vessels or Corvettes to 2018. We’ve brought forward the frigates to 2020, we’ve brought forward the Corvettes by two years, we’ve brought forward the frigates by three years. We've speeded up the process and obviously when you've got more ships sooner, you'll have more jobs sooner.
Now, what I’ve said is that the Corvette build is likely to start in Adelaide. The frigate build will certainly start in Adelaide. That doesn't mean that other yards can't have a role, but certainly the Corvette build is likely to start in Adelaide. It will stay in Adelaide until the frigate build starts in 2020 and then it's quite possible that the Corvette build could shift. Whether it shifts to somewhere else in South Australia, whether it shifts to somewhere else in our country, that obviously is something that we will work out through the Competitive Evaluation Process.
But what's clear is that here in Perth, here at Henderson, there's no naval shipbuilding “valley of death” that there is in South Australia and elsewhere because of the complete and comprehensive failure of the former Labor government to place a single naval shipbuilding order in six years with any Australian yard. They placed a couple of orders with overseas yards, they bought a ship from the Royal Navy, apart from that they just sat on their hands. Now, obviously, this is a very sophisticated manufacturing centre here in Henderson. We’ve got the ships being built right now for the Omani Navy, we’ve got the Cape Class that we’ll build here, there’s the submarines being serviced down the road, there’s the Anzac Class frigates being upgraded down the road. So this is a big centre of shipbuilding – a very big centre of shipbuilding – and I’m just pleased and proud to be here because what we see here is successful Australian naval shipbuilding and we want to see more of it in the years to come.
QUESTION:
So you’ve come to Western Australia, why can you not give any sort of concrete guarantees as you have for other states?
PRIME MINISTER:
What I’ve said is that the Corvettes are likely to start in Adelaide in 2018, the frigates will certainly start in Adelaide in 2020, there’s a Competitive Evaluation Process that will start in October and I really hope that Austal will be involved and, obviously, it’s terrific to be here with Andrew Bellamy the CEO and it’s good to have the welcome that we had from Austal, from BAE, from Raytheon. Basically everyone involved in naval shipbuilding has said that this is a transformative change, this is a historic moment and at last – at last – there’s a government that has sufficient confidence in Australian industry to say that we will have a continuous build of naval surface ships in this country – not just a ship build but a fleet build.
QUESTION:
Can you confirm that the United States has made a formal request to Australia to become involved in the air campaign in Syria?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can confirm that we have received a formal request from the Pentagon. Obviously, it’s a very serious request. We’ll take it very seriously. We’re obviously not going to rush a decision but we will make a decision in the next couple of weeks. I have, as a courtesy, informed the Leader of the Opposition this morning that we have had a formal request from the Americans to extend our air strikes into Syria. I want to make it very clear that the consolidation of a terrorist state in Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq would be a catastrophe for the world. It would be a disaster for Australia, because what we have been seeing on an almost daily basis is the continued lure that this terrorist group – this incipient terrorist state – is providing to misguided and impressionable young Australians. We’re seeing them stopped at our borders almost every day seeking to travel to the Middle East and join this death cult, we’ve seen constant urgings from the death cult to sympathisers in Australia to strike against people here – innocent people here.
So, this is a movement of almost incalculable, unfathomable evil and it’s very important that Australia play its part in the campaign to disrupt, degrade and ultimately destroy this death cult. I should say that while there is a little difference between the legalities of air strikes on either side of the border, there’s no difference in the morality. This is an evil movement whether it’s operating in Iraq or in Syria. It is an absolutely evil movement and in the end, when they don’t respect the border, the question is why should we?
QUESTION:
Have you sought legal advice as to whether you can actually join the US in the way that they’re asking you to?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well obviously the U.S. has been conducting air strikes into Syria for many months now. The U.S. have been conducting air strikes in conjunction with their Middle Eastern partners, with the Saudis, with the Jordanians, with the Emirates. Canada has indicated some time ago that they’re prepared to extend their air strikes into Syria, Britain has considered a readiness to consider air strikes into Syria and, obviously, while there are processes that we need to go through and there’s no decision that would be lightly made here, we obviously have been asked to join the air strikes in Syria and we will carefully consider that request.
QUESTION:
With just six planes over there, can Australia make that much of a difference?
PRIME MINISTER:
Our planes are very effective – very, very effective – and, yes, we've got up to eight strike planes there. We've got up to eight strike aircraft over there, but we've got the Wedgetail airborne control aircraft, we've got our refuelers over there and already our control and refuelling aircraft are involved in theatre-wide operations. So, we are refuelling planes for strikes in Syria, we are controlling airspace for strikes in Syria and I have to say that our refueler and our Wedgetail control aircraft have been doing tremendously good work as have our strike jets as well.
QUESTION:
What do you think your chances are in the Canning by-election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'm confident, but not complacent or cocky. Don Randall was a tremendously popular and effective local member. He was a good very bloke, he was much-loved in the area, he was a very popular member of the caucus and he had a very strong personal vote and, obviously, at the last election there was the Rudd-Gillard factor at work here in Western Australia. So, I'm not saying for a moment that we're going to hold Don's margin, but nevertheless, we've got a terrific candidate. Andrew Hastie is an outstanding individual. He's got great capacity, he’s got great courage. He will certainly stand up for the people of Canning, no doubt about that. He will make a contribution in Canberra should he get there, no doubt about that.
We've got a great story to tell, too. There are 45,000 more jobs in Western Australia now than there were on polling night in September 2013. The mining tax has gone, the carbon tax has gone. There's the one-stop shop for environmental approvals. There's the $1 trillion worth of new environmental approvals that we've put in place. There's the attack on red tape and green tape that has been holding back development. There's the small business tax cuts and the tremendous confidence that we've managed to engender in small business as a result. So, it's a very good record and I think with a good record and a good candidate, you can be reasonably confident of a good result.
QUESTION:
Will we be seeing more of you in Canning throughout the next month? Are you going to wait to be invited by local Liberals and have they invited you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think you'll see me with the candidate in Canning very, very soon indeed.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, was the people's vote on gay marriage your call or the majority of the Party Room's call?
PRIME MINISTER:
Just to explain how our Party Room works, we have a discussion of whatever the relevant issue is and then it's up to the party leader to, if you like, discern the mood of the room and formulate, crystallise if you like, a decision. And as the debate went on and obviously it was a very long and very good debate, it became increasingly clear that there was a strong mood in the Party Room to put this to the people. That wasn't particularly in evidence early in the debate, but increasingly as more and more people spoke that was the way the room was evolving and that's why I called it the way I did.
QUESTION:
So you can commit to legislate same-sex marriage if a plebiscite finds that's what the majority of Australians do want?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me make it absolutely crystal clear what the decision of the Party Room, subsequently endorsed by the Cabinet, was. We maintain our position that marriage is between a man and a woman that we took to the last election. We maintain that position for this term of Parliament because the last thing you'll find this Government doing is breaking faith with the people. If we take a position to the election, people expect us to maintain it at least for that term of Parliament and that's exactly what we're going to do. And in the next term of Parliament, should we win the election, it will be going to the people, because something which is as personal as this, something which, I suppose, has such ramifications, potential ramifications, for the way people think about very deep and personal things is quite appropriately a matter for the people. So, going into the election there'll be a clear choice. There'll be the Labor Party, which wants this to be a politicians' decision and there will be the Coalition, the Liberal-National Coalition, that wants this to be a people's decision.
QUESTION:
What would you call success from the Treasurer’s meeting – an agreement to lower the threshold on on-line goods or removing the tampon tax?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, thanks for asking me about that. It's very important for a government that is absolutely focused on jobs and growth that we don't put our own retailers at a competitive disadvantage and that's the difficulty that they've faced for the last few years and it's got more and more significant as on-line sales have grown and grown and grown. If I'm an Australian business that is selling on-line, I pay the GST, I collect the GST on everything regardless of its value. If I'm an overseas business selling to Australians on-line, there's a $1,000 exemption. So, this has been putting our businesses, our workers at a competitive disadvantage and I do expect that this will be addressed by the state and territory Treasurers today. In the end, it is their decision, because it is a matter for them what happens to the GST. Nevertheless, the Leaders' Retreat, the COAG Leaders' Retreat, a few weeks ago said that this should be addressed urgently as, if you like, the first element in the reform of the federation process that I am so keen to take forward.
Thank you so much.
[ends]