Address to the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference

INTRODUCTION

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

I also pay my respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women who have served our nation in the past and continue to do so today.

And I thank current and former Australian Defence Force personnel for their service.

Thank you Professor Flake for your welcome, 

It’s terrific to be back in Western Australia, to join you today for the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference.

Australia is an Indian Ocean country, and the Indian Ocean region is essential to our security and prosperity.

Over half of the world’s container shipping, and over 80 per cent of global maritime oil trade, passes through the Indian Ocean.

Australia has one of the Indian Ocean’s longest coastlines, the largest Search and Rescue Zone, and the largest Exclusive Economic Zone. 

Accordingly, we are strengthening our defence and maritime domain cooperation with Indian Ocean region countries, and I acknowledge representatives from our partners here today.

The strategic challenges we now face in the region are greater than any we have experienced since the Second World War. 

Our environment is characterised by the uncertainty and tensions of increasing strategic competition.

This competition is accompanied by an unprecedented military build-up in our region, taking place without strategic reassurance or transparency. 

These growing challenges demand a fundamentally new approach from those that have served us well in the past.

FOUNDATIONAL REFORMS TO AUSTRALIA’S DEFENCE

This is why the Government has released the inaugural National Defence Strategy, the rebuilt Integrated Investment Program and the Defence Industry Development Strategy.

These are foundational reforms. 

A strategy of denial is the new cornerstone of Defence planning, designed to deter a potential adversary from taking actions against Australia’s interests and regional stability. 

We are increasing the ADF’s range and lethality, strengthening Australia’s national resilience, and focusing Defence’s international engagement on enhancing interoperability and collective deterrence.

We have rebuilt the Defence Integrated Investment Program, allocating $330 billion over the decade to 2033-34 – a significant lift compared to the $270 billion under the former government’s plan.

This includes $14 to $18 billion to be invested in bases, ports and barracks across Australia’s north, including Cocos (Keeling) Islands airfield infrastructure to enable improved support to maritime surveillance operations by P-8A Poseidon Aircraft. 

We can’t achieve what we need to achieve without the partnership of defence industry. 

So we’ve introduced the Defence Industry Development Strategy to rebuild the nation’s sovereign defence industrial base and reform the way Defence does business with industry.

AUKUS PILLAR I

Western Australia is at the forefront of the pathway for Australia to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.

It’s been the home of our submarines for decades.

And this legacy will continue when Australia’s first sovereign nuclear-powered submarine capability – the Virginia class submarines –operate from HMAS Stirling.

To make this vision a reality, the Government will invest around $8 billion in HMAS Stirling over the next decade and a half.

Furthermore, $1.5 billion in priority works have been approved to support implementation of Submarine Rotational Force-West. 

Longer and more frequent visits to HMAS Stirling by our AUKUS partners’ nuclear-powered submarines have already begun, with visits by USS North Carolina and USS Annapolis. 

The Government has selected ASC as a sovereign partner for nuclear-powered submarine sustainment and ASC, in partnership with BAE Systems, to build Australia’s SSN-AUKUS submarines at Osborne in South Australia.  

We will see around 3,000 direct jobs created by the HMAS Stirling works and up to 8,500 direct jobs in building and sustaining the submarines.

Building the workforce needed to deliver this vital work is already underway.

In June, around 30 skilled ASC workers left Australia for the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, to start training in the maintenance of US Virginia class submarines.

Workers from South Australia and Western Australia are now hard at work, acquiring knowledge and know-how from their American counterparts.

Once they have completed their overseas training – they will take up key roles in Western Australia as part of Submarine Rotational Force-West, where they will lead the sustainment of rotating US and UK nuclear-powered submarines. 

Industrial workforce training placements are also underway in the United Kingdom, and last year more than 70 apprentices and graduates from Western Australia and South Australia started in ASC’s Early Careers Program.

The Australian conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarine enterprise offers once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for Australian workers.

A young person starting an apprenticeship or embarking on a university degree this year could work their entire life on these projects, such is the scale and extent of this nation-building undertaking.

And it’s not in the never-never.

The first planned maintenance activity of a US Virginia class submarine is scheduled to occur at HMAS Stirling this year. 

This will be the first time Australian personnel will participate in maintenance activities on US nuclear-powered submarines in Australia.

We see huge opportunities in helping construct and sustain submarines for our AUKUS partners as well as our build and sustain requirements. That is why we initiated the Defence Industry Vendor Qualification Program earlier this year to get Australian businesses ready for work in the trilateral supply chain.

It will be a tangible demonstration of the progress we are making to acquire this capability.

SURFACE COMBATANT FLEET 

The Government has also recognised that Australia’s Navy requires a larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet.

And the Australian Army must become more amphibious and mobile to project force and contribute to the collective security of our region. 

Continuous naval shipbuilding and sustainment in Western Australia is integral to the success of these goals. We are the first Commonwealth Government to commit to continuous shipbuilding in WA. And more importantly have allocated billions of dollars in the IIP to drive this.

As the Deputy Prime Minister said this is the biggest commitment to the West Australian defence industrial base since federation.

Our vision for the success of the shipbuilding enterprise in this state is built on a comprehensive approach: working in partnership with state government, industry, unions and workers to achieve a strong and sustainable industry.

That is why the Deputy Prime Minister and I convened the inaugural Maritime Workforce and Skills Council yesterday.

This Council will ensure alignment on critical initiatives to deliver a productive and resilient sovereign shipbuilding and sustainment industrial enterprise. This includes a precinct level approach to skilling and industrial relations.

And I am pleased to see the spirit of collaboration also playing out in industry, with this morning’s announcement by Austal and Civmec to enter into a partnership to help deliver Landing Craft Heavy. 

In principle, the Government welcomes this announcement.

Austal is one of Defence’s leading shipbuilding partners, and Civmec’s Henderson site is the largest heavy engineering facility of its kind in Australia, with a strong workforce.

Combining Austral’s naval shipbuilding experience with Civmec’s steel fabrication and large assembly capabilities presents an opportunity to support the Government’s continuous naval shipbuilding and sustainment plan.

The updated plan will be released later this year, but the Albanese Government has already laid out a blueprint on where the opportunities lie.

We have committed an additional $11.1 billion dollars over the decade to a larger and more lethal naval fleet.

This will see Australia’s Navy grow to the largest number of surface combatants since the Second World War. We will more than double the surface combatant fleet.

It will include eleven new general purpose frigates, with eight to be built at the Henderson precinct, which will also enable a pathway to build six new Large Optionally Crewed Surface Vessels at Henderson.

Along with the current sustainment workforce, the Government’s plan will create at least 1,200 new local jobs in the state over the next decade.
This workforce will complement the building of the Army Landing Craft in the consolidated Henderson naval precinct.

Yesterday, I announced that Government has approved $2 billion to build 18 Landing Craft Medium in Henderson, with the first vessel due in 2026. Subject to Austal’s performance, this will be followed by eight Landing Craft Heavy, which the Government has brought forward from the mid-2030s to 2028. 

These projects, along with the Evolved Cape Class Patrol boats, will create at least 1,200 high skill, well paid jobs.

In total, $7 to $10 billion dollars will be invested in 26 new landing craft – which will transform the mobility of the Army.

The Government has listened to the state government, industry and unions about the critical need to invest in the Defence workforce.

In the last Budget we committed $81.9 million dollars towards defence industry for critical jobs, including for scholarships, attracting and recruiting apprentices under the Shipbuilding Employment Pathways Initiative, supply chain support and uplifting the defence industrial workforce.

We’ve secured the pipeline of work at Henderson to provide industry with certainty, to give workers long-term job security and ensure value for money for the taxpayers who are investing in the infrastructure. 

For too long the shipbuilding industry in the West has suffered a boom-bust cycle, undermining productivity and workforce retention. 

The years of drift and uncertainty are over. 

We now have the right plan in place to deliver these vital capabilities into the hands of the ADF. 

CONCLUSION

I’d like to finish by acknowledging the commitment of ADF personnel and defence industry workers here in the West to the success of this endeavour.

To a large extent, the future of Australia’s defence is being made here, in Western Australia. 

The state is home to cutting-edge research and innovative defence businesses, and host to the future of the Australian naval shipbuilding and sustainment enterprise.

When I travel west, when I meet Defence people as they map out how they will deliver this incredible industrial undertaking, I hear optimism, determination and commitment.

All along the supply chains, from the largest primes to the smallest start-ups, across the Defence science ecosystem and in the heart of our military establishment, there is recognition of the importance of this moment to the future of Australia’s national security.

I thank them all, acknowledging many of them are here for the important discussions taking place today, and I wish you well for a successful Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference. 

[ENDS]