Prime Minister
MR GAVIN PEARCE, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BRADDON: Well, good afternoon and welcome to the North West. I'm joined today by the Prime Minister behind me, of course. Prime Minister, welcome to the North West. Welcome to Tassie again. And we're being hosted here today at this magnificent facility, this manufacturing epicentre of the North West, Elphinstone Underground. Dale, the owner, and Kelly, his daughter, have been kindly welcoming to us all here today and we've seen the first class product that they produce here in Elphinstone.
We’re here today, of course, around an announcement of the Defence 8116 project, which is a self-propelled artillery piece, 155 mm howitzer, which projects a rocket assisted propulsion projectile up to 50 kilometres. The thing will do 67 kilometres an hour. It weighs up to a combat weight of 47 tonnes. And, as a soldier, and many of you will realise that, that I spent 20 years of my life in the military, I understand completely how important it is to put the very best, most reliable and well-built pieces of equipment in the hands of our men and women of our Defence Force. When your life is on the line and you're protecting those around you, you want the very best and you want to have faith in that. And I today have got no more faith than the faith that I've got in the Elphinstone group. I know that you can do this and I know that you can set the example for many others to follow.
Talking about following when it comes to defence, that it brings me to the introduction of the Prime Minister. And there's no person that I'd want to follow in relation to defence and the the serious nature and the back backing that he's put into not only defence funding but also support for defence has been second to none, and it gives me great pride to introduce the Prime Minister to you all today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Gav. Well, thanks also to Dale and Kelly for being here with you today. It was actually some years ago when I was here in Burnie, meeting with Dale at the time, and it was about the time when they were doing the transformation of this very, this very plant, this very shop here from Caterpillar into what is now Elphinstone Underground.
Dale and his family have been mainstays of this community in the North West. This community wouldn’t look like this if it were not for the investment that Dale’s family and what they've been able to create here over many, many, many years and through some pretty hard times. I remember, Dale, when we had that conversation about five years ago, the town was going through a pretty, pretty rough time, and you guys, you dug in and and you doubled down and committed, and here we are today to be able to talk about a really important contract, which is not only going to add further capability to Elphinstone and bring 55 jobs here, it's going to significantly lift the capability of our Defence Forces.
Now the project we're talking about, and Gavin well-articulated its technical merits, let me tell you a couple of other things about this contract for the howitzers. This was one of the programs that Labor cut. So when they were cutting defence spending, this was one of the programs they cut. And this is one of the programs, particularly as Prime Minister, I restored. The program that now sees these important parts of that capability being built right here in the North West. Now this was a program that we were able to land the final procurement contract when the Korean President was out here recently, some of you may recall when the Korean President was here, and sometimes people say, what was all that about and what does that mean for me? Well, if you're living in Wynyard and you're one of the 55 who've got a job as a result of this contract, then you know exactly what that program is all about.
So at this Wynyard base manufacturing facility, I should say, I should say, at the Wynyard base manufacturing facility here, we've got 55 new jobs, 45 turrets and hulls for the Australian Army's new Huntsman, what's called the Huntsman capability, and there'll be parts of the project which are done here, a small part of the project here. And the majority of it will be done down at Wynyard. So incredibly exciting times, I think, for the North West.
Our defence industry procurement strategy is all about building our defence industry capability. You want a strong Defence Force, then you've got to have sovereign manufacturing capability in your Defence Forces. And we've lifted that from a a low level when we first came to Government, about 1.5 to 1.6 per cent of GDP. That was the lowest level, you have to go back to 1938. That's what Labor left us. They were cancelling defence contracts, they were cutting defence spending. We've turned that around. We're over two per cent now and we're getting on with these important projects.
But, Dale, tell us a bit more about what it means for your company and what it particularly means here for the North West.
MR DALE ELPHINSTONE, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, ELPHINSTONE PTY LTD: I think I think the first thing I'd like to say is acknowledge the Federal Government's confidence in manufacturing in Australia because, I guess, we've gradually seen our car industries, the manufacturing capabilities that we have be whittled away, and we see this as a vote of confidence from the Government in what we've been able to do. We've been here for 45 years building underground mining machines in this facility. We compete on a global stage every day of the week. We do that without subsidy. And this, I think the Prime Minister made a very good point. [Phone rings]
PRIME MINISTER: There’s another order, Dale.
MR DALE ELPHINSTONE, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, ELPHINSTONE PTY LTD: It is. Sorry. That's alright. The the Prime Minister made a very good point that we’re here because of the mining industry and we are now capable of building because of what we've built here, capable of building our military products, which is a, is a distinct benefit that we gain from from, I guess, the mining industry, aside from all the other things it does in the country. But we've been at this for, I think Kelly said to me last night - Kelly's particularly led the charge on this - and we've been at this for seven years and you probably know we bid the LAND 400 Phase 2. We weren't successful, but we don't give up. So we've stayed with this and we're very thankful now with Hanwha to be joining them for this product. And this will give us entree, we hope, into other bigger and better things that, as we demonstrate our capability to manufacture in Australia, because that's what's really important to us. And we need to do, and if I've got to give the Government any encouragement, is to do more things in this country for ourselves so that we are more self-sufficient on any and everything that we do, because we've got the capabilities in this country to get that done. I don't know whether you want to add something, Kel.
MS KELLY ELPHINSTONE, DIRECTOR, ELPHINSTONE PTY LTD: Oh no, other than absolutely I think for the, for the state and the community, for the Federal Government to really put, get behind the Australian or the AIC or Australian Industry Content for defence, is why we're all standing here today, because they've honoured that commitment. And for Hanwha to also respect that the capability exists here. We're not the only Tasmanian business to be part of this defence contract, but it certainly is about building a new industry here in Tasmania. It’s, the Australian defence industry is really important to us here in Tassie and I think we’re demonstrating that we're capable of doing it just like any other state. So very happy to have you here, Prime Minister, and very appreciative of the opportunity for our people and our supply chain.
PRIME MINISTER: Ok, we’ve got time for a couple of questions. [Inaudible]
MR DALE ELPHINSTONE, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, ELPHINSTONE PTY LTD: Just one other comment, sorry, that I think is really important. In our discussions with Hanwha, this may will lead to us building products for other countries overseas. So there's a real opportunity here for us that’s been initiated by the Government for us to join with them to be in the supply chain of much bigger things than we're looking at here. And that's really what we're in, we’re interested in investing our people's time and efforts and our capital in to make sure we can get that done. So I think that's a really important point.
PRIME MINISTER: I agree, Dale.
JOURNALIST: You were met outside by a protester upset about the proposed MMG tailings dam. What's your reaction to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's not surprising that not everybody agrees with what the Government our views might be. But what we were announcing today was about our commitment to the forestry industry here in Tasmania, and our Government is committed to the forestry industry.
JOURNALIST: She wasn't happy with what Sussan Ley had to say about it. Have you actually looked into the proposal yourself for a tailings dam in the Tarkine?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll take my advice from the Minister and I think the Minister’s been making the points well.
JOURNALIST: Petrol prices and cost of living are a big concern for Australians today, in particular. What's the Government doing to address them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, electricity prices are down eight per cent. They’re down five per cent in the last year. What we're seeing with petrol prices, they’re obviously being impacted by the global uncertainty we’re seeing around. That’s why we took steps as a Government to boost our fuel security. We were doing that through the pandemic - accessing reserves and making sure we were well stocked. But at the same time, Australia is not immune from the global uncertainty that we're seeing at the moment. When you've got what's occurring in Europe, particularly on the borders of Ukraine, well, these are troubling and uncertain times. And Australia can't be completely insulated from those sorts of things.
But the best way to ensure we keep downward pressure on inflation and we keep downward pressure on interest rates at a time of great uncertainty is you've got to have a Government that knows how to manage money, and we have demonstrated that. And the objective evidence of that is we're one of nine countries, only nine in the world, to have maintained our AAA credit rating from all the leading credit agencies in the world. You want to have downward pressure on interest rates, downward pressure on inflation and the cost of living, the best way to do that is have a Government that ensures, that knows how to manage money, which we've demonstrated at one of the most difficult times our country has seen since the Great Depression and the Second World War. We have had to invest significantly to keep businesses going.
I was saying to Dale before, to meet those apprentices here today is a great thrill. One of the first things we did, in fact, the first thing that the Treasurer and I did, it was before JobKeeper, we put in place the wage subsidy for apprentices. The reason we did that is we had a great fear that with the economic tsunami that was going to hit Australia through the pandemic, would see all of those skills, all of those apprentices and trainees who had just started or would have started during the pandemic, gone. Last off, first on, their training over. Now, we invested in keeping those skills in businesses just like Dale’s and Kelly right here. And you know what that means, it means coming out the other side of the pandemic, Elphinstone can bid on this contract with Hanwha and be able to secure it because they’ve had the people to actually go and do that job. Had the Government not stepped in and kept those apprentices in training, they're now finishing their apprenticeships. I met a chap down there, he's got a couple of months to go. He would never have finished that apprenticeship. We’ve kept people together in their businesses so they can now go and be competitive, and to be doing it in an area of sovereign manufacturing capability is incredibly exciting. Thanks, everyone. Thanks very much.