PREMIER OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA:
I’d like to welcome Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to Western Australia and particularly here to the Australian Marine Complex. This complex was a joint undertaking between the Commonwealth Government and the State Government as part of the Centenary of Federation Project. It’s proved to be very successful, great success in building seagoing ferries, particularly here by Austal Ships. But also now, more and more work in defence contracting. So a great success story and people tend to think of Western Australia as simply being iron ore and gas production. Far from the truth. This is a very sophisticated manufacturer supplying the Australian Navy, navies overseas and the like. So a great example.
I’d also like to say, with the commitment the Commonwealth Government is making to naval projects, in particular, and already announced Pacific Patrol boats, the Offshores Patrol Vessel will be built here by Austal, which is a great boost to the industry and to the state. So thank you, Prime Minister and again, welcome to Western Australia.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you Colin, it’s great to be here with Senator Linda Reynolds and with John Rothwell, Chairman, and David Singleton, the Chief Executive of Austal Shipbuilding.
This is a great story of Western Australian enterprise. A great story of collaboration between State Government, Federal Government and enterprising West Australians. It’s how the iron ore industry got started, actually. You can see the defence industry commitment that we’ve made here; is going to provide thousands of jobs over the years for decades and decades to come.
The first vessels to be built under our shipbuilding plan will be built here, starting in April, the Pacific Patrol Vessels. Then the Offshore Patrol Vessels will begin construction here in 2020. We’re committing $100 million to this facility here to enable the owners of the facility here to improve wharves, hardstands, cranes module manufacturing facilities - all of the tools that they need to produce more ships, better ships, to create more jobs.
This is all about jobs. It is bringing together the enterprise and the energy that has made Western Australia great for so many years, bringing it here in this advanced manufacturing centre, which is focused on ensuring that Australia has the best naval capability in the world for our size. Ensuring that we have the most advanced vessels available to us.
We’ve just been out on one of the products of this facility here, one of the vessels that Austal Shipbuilding has built. You’ve seen that, you’ve seen the excellence of what they do. You know the remarkable thing is that 80 per cent of the work from Austal here is for export.
So what John Rothwell and David and their team have done, is they have built a business that is built on exports. It’s built with the confidence that Western Australians have, to look outwards and take on the world. That’s what we’re doing and we’re backing them. We’re putting in here $100 million over the next few years to get ready for the Offshore Patrol Vessels.
Of course, overall we have about $2.4 billion going in to Defence facilities over the next decade in Western Australia as we upgrade all of our bases and facilities here in the West. A very big commitment. Our Defence Industry Plan is truly a nation-building plan. It is going to give the ADF the capabilities it needs in the 21st century, and build, as you can see here, the basis, the foundation of a great advanced manufacturing export industries.
I know David Singleton has got some more good news about what’s happening here at Austal so, David, come and tell us what you’re doing for jobs and opportunities for young West Australians.
DAVID SINGLETON:
Good morning everybody. First of all, I’d like to thank the Prime Minister for his absolute devotion to this industry and the need to get high-quality ships into the Royal Australian Navy. That has to be everybody’s priority. At the same time, using those Defence dollars to drive innovation and capability in this country, which allows us to take our industry – which is already very successful – to the next level.
Now the Prime Minister has announced $100 million of new capital investment into this Henderson region for new facilities. Let me just tell you what that feels like.
The rubber is now hitting the road. Today, it’s having an impact, right now, on what’s happening in this area. In the last 12 months, we’ve trebled the size of the design department in this facility. That’s new jobs for very highly qualified naval architects and engineers, who are designing ships for export and also for the Navy. Those ships are then driving jobs into the shipyard and around this region.
But the thing that excites me most is today, I’m happy to announce - very happy to announce - that Austal is making a commitment to employ 100 new apprentices into this facility over the next 12 months. That’s 100 young people who are going to get the opportunity to come and work in the shipbuilding industry. You know there’s one big difference today, to what we’ve seen in the past. That is, because of the Government’s action to drive the continuous shipbuilding industry, I can say to a new apprentice with absolute confidence now: “You’ve got 20 or 30 years of work ahead of you in this industry”. That’s something we have never been able to say before. Really important. I would say to all of the girls out there and all of the boys out there who are looking for an apprenticeship: “Please come. Put your hand up. We really want to bring you into this industry.”
Thank you very much Prime Minister for your announcement today.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible]
DAVID SINGLETON:
I don’t see that at all. What I see is a huge enterprise that the Government is now stepping into, to build air warfare destroyers, Pacific Patrol Boats, frigates, Offshore Patrol Boats, all sorts of equipment.
That’s not all going to be built in one place, so some of that equipment, some of those ships are going to be built in Adelaide, particularly capability. A number of the ships are going to be built and a lot of the sustainment work is going to be done here as well. Very important. Very important for this system to this ecosystem, it’s going to be all about sustainment onwards.
PRIME MINISTER:
And Senator Reynolds is very focused on Defence issues - a brigadier.
SENATOR LINDA REYNOLDS:
Thank you, Prime Minister, and I’ve got to say, I am such a proud Western Australian today and I hope all West Australians are equally proud. As the Prime Minister said, we’ve got the State Government, Federal Government, industry, education institutions here all working together to create the industries of the future here. It is exactly like it was 50 years ago when the State Government, Federal Government and industry worked together to create the iron ore industry.
In relation to your question, it is far from scraps. If you walk down this Henderson strip here, we have got Collins Class submarines being maintained, we have the entire frigate fleet here already being refurbished. We’ve got - as you can see - Austal doing an amazing job for Australian Border Force and now for the Defence Force here. They are already doing this work. There are thousands of West Australians here working in support of the shipbuilding and defence industry.
I think probably the most exciting point that we have here, is that so many people working down here have come off the mining sites and out of mining and resources industries. So we are employing the smarts we have got in those industries and transitioning them to new industries here. 80 per cent already of what gets manufactured here, is exported because it is world's best.
The last point which I think it is important to raise is that, not only are we doing a large number of commercial and naval fleets now and into the future, but we are already one of the biggest sustainment places here for Australia. In future, we are highly competitive for all of the new - for the OPVs, for the Air Warfare Destroyer, for the LHDs which are now being commissioned but also the Future Frigates. We are perfectly placed here because the Navy is here, the facility is here to get billions of dollars’ worth more of sustainment.
Yes, we have got to go out and support our companies to competitively bid for it, but I don't think there is anyone else better placed than the West Australian industry with the support of the Federal and State Government, to do that. So it is far from scraps.
PRIME MINISTER:
Very good. Thank you Linda. Any other questions?
JOURNALIST:
Last week, the Premier said...
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, here is the Premier.
JOURNALIST:
He said the first question you would be asked, last time you were here, you promised a floor in the GST, what will it be? So Prime Minister what will the floor in the GST be?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that is to be agreed with the other states. What I said last year, at the State Council and Colin was with me when I said it, we said: firstly, we acknowledged that Western Australia's share is far too low. That is why we have contributed, as Colin knows, an extra $500 million from the Federal Government, each year for the last two years. To, if you like, top up the receipts the state has had from the GST.
But when the states' share of the GST moves back up, as it will, as it is forecast to do, what we will do is seek to set a floor at a time when there will be no losers. Because obviously it’s important. Colin is the most formidable advocate for his state. There is nobody better able to secure a good deal for Western Australia than Colin Barnett. He is the most experienced, he has the most credibility, the most standing among the Premiers, believe me. He is listened to. But what we need to do is make sure that when the share moves back up, as it will as it adjusts, that's when we need to set a floor, but we obviously have to reach agreement with the others. I think between us we will be able to do that.
JOURNALIST:
On radio this morning, you said Western Australia's share of GST was forecast to hit 70-75 cents by 2019-2010. Who told you that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that was an estimate I think from, that was last year Colin?
PREMIER BARNNET:
Probably a little bit lower than that, but it is heading -
JOURNALIST:
Treasury put out the other week 60 cents and the mid-year review said 66 cents?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I was talking figures from last year. I think the tip-up from iron ore prices might have delayed that adjustment.
JOURNALIST:
But it’s a hollow promise though isn’t it. You have said you will set a floor, yet for six months we have not heard what floor, where it will be set, what impact. We are talking in the never-never now.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't know, you’re obviously not a very optimistic person. I wouldn't regard 2020 as in the never-never, it is not very long away at all. The point is when the time to set the floor, as we have agreed, as we have acknowledged, is when there won't be losers. I'm the Prime Minister leading the Federal Government. I can't take the cause of one state against all the other jurisdictions. So what we've got to do - this is why it needs the leadership, the standing, the credibility of Colin Barnett - you need to be able to reach agreement and the time to do that is obviously when the Western Australia share is adjusted upwards and you can set a floor at a level that does not result in anybody losing at that time.
JOURNALIST:
Is that possible, Prime Minister, do you think? Do you have a mechanism in your mind where you think you can come to a deal where there are no losers?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well of course. The point is, if the formula is giving Western Australia - say it's giving it 70 per cent, right? And that's the formula, everyone else is getting their share, Western Australia's share is 70 per cent of what it's contributing. If you were to set the floor at or below that, then obviously nobody is going to lose at that time. The problem is, if you set the floor above the share that Western Australia has at the moment, then others would lose and they won't agree to it.
So as with all of these things, we've got to reach agreement. Another great Western Australian, Christian Porter, the Minister for Social Services in my Government, has often said to me "Complaining about Australia's Federation is like complaining about Switzerland's mountains". The Federation requires collaboration and it requires consensus and agreement and it requires credible, powerful, experienced leadership. That's what Colin Barnett brings for Western Australia. That's why Western Australians will support him and his Government because nobody, believe me, is better able to stand up for Western Australia, to make the case for Western Australia, to win the day for Western Australia, than Colin Barnett.
JOURNALIST:
Your plan to reshape the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has drawn criticism today. How do you respond to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me make a couple of points. We have to take the ideology and the politics out of the energy debate. The Labor Party - you've seen in South Australia what happens when you have an approach to energy that is all ideology and no engineering. The Labor Party's goal is to have very high levels of renewable energy. OK, let's say that's what they want to do. Fair enough. But then they do no planning. They don't put in place any storage. They don't put in place the back-up and you get the result in South Australia where you have the most expensive and least reliable electricity in the country. That is a threat to households. It's putting pressure on tight family budgets. And of course, it is a threat to businesses and to jobs.
People say to me: "Do you believe in renewable energy?" It's not a question of belief. It's like saying: "Do you believe in tables,” or “do you believe in ships?"
Renewable energy has a very important role to play. It's getting cheaper, that's true. But it needs, if it's variable like wind and solar, it needs to be planned into the grid. So you need more transmission, you need more storage, you need more energy sources to back it up.
What Labor has done, they've been complacent and negligent, because it's been all about the politics. You see now with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation - what we have said is that we should look at being able - we haven't made a decision here, but we are reviewing the whole energy scene - and we are saying that clean coal, by which I mean carbon capture and storage which is where you take the carbon emissions from a coal-fired or gas-fired power station and put them under the ground - as is being done at Gorgon here in Western Australia, which is a proven technology, that is obviously a way to deliver clean energy. The Labor Party is now opposed to that. Under Kevin Rudd, they were all up for carbon capture and storage. So you see Labor is constantly playing politics with people's lives. All we are saying, is let's make our approach to energy, as far as technology, all of the above. They have all got role to play. The critical thing is to be businesslike, objective, hard-headed, and plan it. Make sure we ensure three things: energy affordability. Mums and dads and businesses alike must be able to keep their lights on. Reliability. When they flick the switch, the lights and the air conditioner has to come on. And of course, we have to meet our emissions reduction targets that we have agreed to in Paris. Now we have set out a road map to reform our energy system to reach that. We are looking at the facts, looking at it from an engineering objective point of view. Labor is all politics and all ideology. That's why in South Australia, you don't need to theorise, you’ve got the example there. 40 per cent wind, no storage, no back-up. The most expensive, least reliable power in the country.
Thank you all very much.
[ENDS]