Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me start by thanking you, Uncle John, for your wonderful welcome to country here today. It’s great to be here with the Worimi people and our blessings also to your people and thank you for your warm welcome. We acknowledge the Worimi people, elders past and present and those emerging. Can I also acknowledge all of our Defence Force personnel who are here with us today, and there are a lot. It’s great to see you here today. And also to any veterans who I know work amongst those here at BAE or the many other partners. Veterans are the best type of recruitment you can make, particularly into these industries, but so many others. And can I just simply say to all, thank you for your service. Of course, the Minister for Defence, the Minister for Defence Industry, Linda and Melissa, it’s great to be here with you again. Chief Air Marshall Hupfield, wonderful to be here with you. Senator Hollie Hughes, to Gabby Costigan and Joe North from BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin. It is a long list of dignitaries.
We walked into Top Gun, the soundtrack, and I think many people are looking forward to the next edition of that movie too. But I'm frankly more excited by what I'm seeing here. And everyone who's involved in this project is a top gun in my view because it requires all of you to perform at the highest possible standard and to be the very best at what you do. I just met some of those amazing people who are part of this programme just in the other hangar just a few minutes ago. The best at what they do.
We're here today to mark another milestone in our step, our big step forward, that's about keeping Australians safe in a very uncertain world. Another important day in our $270 billion plan to shore up the nation's security in an uncertain world and what better place to do it than here at RAAF Williamtown. The base was established during World War II, a grim time as conflict came closer and closer than ever before. The base was set up to protect the port and steel operations of the Hunter. The first servicemen here at Williamtown lived in huts. The base was a war-time improvisation. The lesson of those times when we had let defence spending fall to record lows prior to the Second World War in the mistaken belief that others would save us, is that Australia must always, must always, be prepared. Always prepared. Looking to the future to be prepared and to act in the present. We always innovate and this base has always done that.
First, there were the meteors and the savers and the postwar years followed by the mirages. Some of us old enough to remember the F/A-18 Hornet’s recordbreaking journey from the US in the 80s. Those classic Hornets served as well for more than three decades and they still have a vital role at RAAF Base Tindal for some time. This year we mark quite a number of milestones, very important for our country. The 70th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance, the bedrock as President Biden said to me just last week, to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific. This Base's 80th anniversary, something that will be celebrated by the RAAF and its broader RAAF family, but also I believe of the Hunter community. And, of course, the centenary of the RAAF that we will celebrate next month.
But today's milestone for the first time we're inducting an F-35A Lighting Fighter to be maintained and modified right here at BAE Systems Australia Williamtown facility. Now, this is a huge step. It puts Australia at the centre of the fifth generation global Joint Strike Fighter programme, a vital, crucial component of our sovereign defence capability, underscore sovereign defence capability. It's also an achievement for Australian industry on a global scale. Eventually this facility will maintain all F-35 aircraft in the South-East Asia region, not just our RAAF fleet. This is another example of how the JSF programme is providing longer-term job opportunities in our nation.
Every single F-35, and there are more than 600 of them around the world, has a bit of Australia in it. Australian-built components. Now, this includes where they are made. In fact, at QuickStep facility at Bankstown Aerodrome in Western Sydney which I have had the opportunity to visit and see exactly Australia's broader role in this amazing programme. Some 50 Australian companies are providing parts and systems into the global Joint Strike Fighter programme and those contracts are worth $2.7 billion to date. We're not kidding. We're not mucking around here. We are a serious, serious part of this undertaking here in Australia and we're very proud of it.
We launched a new Joint Strike Fighter industry support program in December to further maximise the industry opportunities. In December, we also awarded a sovereign F-35 training support services contract valued at over $70 million to Lockheed Martin Australia and subcontractor Mill School, a wholly-owned Australian company. It's delivering 70 jobs in the Hunter and the Tindal regions. Lockheed Martin is also partnering with RDA Hunter and TAFE New South Wales through the STEM Start initiative to ensure there is a job-ready workforce to support the industrial technologies of the future, particularly here at Williamtown and BAE. We're all part of one big family driving this major change in the skills pipeline of this exciting region.
The sustainment of F-35s are predicted to generate around 750 jobs directly and indirectly across the country by 2025 and this will grow to thousands as more F-35s arrive in the region. Skills, jobs and new beginnings also, which the Hunter is no stranger to. I was pleased this morning to meet, as I said, some of those new recruits with Gabby that have now completed their initial training and will soon be hard at work maintaining and sustaining the growing fleet of F-35s.
It's a very successful project so far and we know it will continue on time, on budget, part of our plan to keep Australians safe. I said at the Press Club this time last week or thereabouts in Canberra, the protecting and securing Australia's interests in a challenging world is fundamental, fundamental, to what our Government is all about. I spoke of the conversation I had with President Biden last week and I was able to say to him as I have said many times before, Australia looks to the United States, sure, but we don't leave it to the United States.
We're a nation that has sovereign self-respect when it comes to our defence forces and our defence industry that support them. We do our share of the heavy lifting and I'm very proud of the heavy lifting that's being done here by BAE, together with the RAAF to ensure that we have that capability which at the end of the day means, as Australians even growing up this day, that for decades and decades to come, this programme will be keeping them and their families safe and growing jobs here in the Hunter. Thank you so much.