Updated - Press Conference, Bendigo

SUBJECTS: GOVERNMENT INVESTS $45 MILLION IN BENDIGO WITH NEW BUSHMASTERS

LISA CHESTERS: Okay, so welcome everybody back to Bendigo Thales.  I am Lisa Chesters, the Federal Member for Bendigo.  I'm very proud to be standing here today with Minister Pat Conroy, he is going to make a significant announcement for this site.  

As you all know we have a proud defence manufacturing industry here in Bendigo and for decades we have been building the Bushmasters which we know not only save Australian troops lives but are making a real difference across the world.  Can I just take a quick moment to give a shout out to the team that work here at Thales, generations of workers here at Thales that build the Bushmasters, and it was great to meet the apprentices that are going to be involved in the current build and future builds here at Bendigo Thales.  I will now hand over to the minister who will make today's announcement, so welcome back to Bendigo.  Always very happy to have the minister back here in Bendigo.

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Thanks Lisa, and I would like to begin by acknowledging that we meet on the land of the Indigenous people and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.  

Can I acknowledge the fabulous member for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters.  This place was the first place I visited as the new Minister for Defence Industry due to the advocacy of Lisa Chesters who I do nickname the member for Bendigo and Bushmasters such is her advocacy for this defence capability. 

Can I acknowledge Andrew Downes, vice president Thales for strategy. Can I acknowledge the management and workforce of Thales who produce the incredible machines and can I acknowledge the Australian manufacturing workers union, organisers and delegates as well.  Thales really is a model of the tripartite relationship between the union, the workforce and the company is a model that I would love to see replicated around the country of all groups pulling together for the national effort.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, Bushmasters saves lives.  Bushmasters saves lives.  We've seen them save Australian soldiers' lives in the Afghanistan deployment, we have seen them save Ukranian lives during the current conflict in the Ukraine as a result of Vladimir Putin's unprincipled invasion of Ukraine.  These are incredibly popular protected mobility vehicles, or armored trucks that we have seen deployed around the world.  I last year with Prime Minister Rabuka of Fiji handing over 14 Bushmasters to protect Fiji soldiers on UN peacekeeping efforts.  So Bushmasters save lives and they're a tribute to the workforce, the very skilled workforce here at Thales Bendigo.  

Today I'm here to announce a new $45 million contract to produce 15 of the most advanced variants of the Bushmaster. These are the commander-controlled variant, these are critical to us standing up our new regiment long range fires that will deploy high mobility artillery rocket systems as part of the transformation of the Australian Army to one equipped for long range strike and that transformation, that standing up of that regiment would not occur without those 15 commander control Bushmasters that are the subject of the $45 million contract we are announcing today.  

This contract is part of the over $200 million that the Albanese Labor Government has invested in contracts to Thales Bendigo over the last two years. We have placed orders for almost 100 Bushmaster vehicles to help protect the Australian defence force.  So this is a great day for the skilled workforce of Thales Bendigo, it's an even better day for the men and women of the Australian Defence Force because they'll be getting more of this advanced equipment to help protect them in the field.  

I do have another announcement to make today, which is that based on the latest advice from defence we are confident that Thales and the Australian Army have found a solution to the braking issue for the Hawkei protected mobility vehicle light.  These 1100 vehicles are critical to the mobility of the Australian army, and I'm delighted to say planning has begun to roll out the Hawkei's to the Australian Army as we speak.  So that's another great announcement and again a testament to the skilled workforce here.  

This, again, is a symbolic demonstration of the Albanese Labor Government’s commitment to defending this country, we recently announced our new national defence strategy that was centred around performing the Australian Army investing $330 billion over the next decade in acquiring new equipment and sustaining that new equipment to make Australia safer, and this is one part of that announcement.  The Albanese Labor Government is serious about defending Australia, defending our citizens, as well as a Future Made in Australia and that $330 billion spend will support around 100,000 skilled Australian workers who work in a defence industry with hundreds right here at the Thales Bendigo site.  

I want to say thank you to the skilled workforce, I want to say thank you to the management of Thales, I want to say thank you to the fierce advocacy of Lisa Chesters; as I said this was the first site and my first visit as the Minister for Defence Industry. Lisa is in my ear every week about the importance of the site, and the importance of this to the Bendigo community.  We released a Defence Industry Development Strategy earlier this year within it are seven sovereign defence industrial priorities and one of them is the manufacture of armoured vehicles and one of the centres of excellence for that sovereign capability is here at Thales Bendigo, so thank you to everyone involved, I will hand over now to Andrew to make a few comments on behalf of Thales.

ANDREW DOWNES: Thank you Minister and it's great to be here in Bendigo, the home of the Bushmaster with the Minister for Defence Industry and of course Lisa Chesters who as the minister says is a fantastic fighter for the workers and the capability here at Thales Bendigo.  Bendigo is home of the Bushmaster and the Bushmaster is a great example of what can be made in Australia.  

You may not realise it, but right here in Bendigo this factory is an important national asset.  There's not many places in this country that have the engineering expertise, the technical skills, and the workforce to build something as complex and as battle proven as the Bushmaster.  So we thank the Government for the announcement today and the confidence that they've shown, not just in the Bushmaster platform, but in the important capability that this factory provides and in the workers who turn up every day to deliver a solution that protects not just Australian lives but the lives of our allies and partners.  

This announcement is great for local jobs, we are very proud to have good jobs here at Thales, union jobs and once again it's an excellent step forward in continuing to produce Bushmaster here in Bendigo, so thank you Minister and thank you Lisa.

JOURNALIST:   Thank you Andrew. We will invite questions first on today's announcement and then turning to other news of the day are there any questions about today's announcement?

JOURNALIST:  You mentioned that Bushmaster saves Australian lives; can you go a little bit in to what this looks like out on the field?

MINISTER CONROY: Well it saves Australian lives - and I'm aware that I'm standing next to not only a Thales spokesperson but a veteran, but the Bushmaster saves lives due to its mobility but the secret sauce is the V-shaped hull that you can see behind me.  

So in Afghanistan not a single Australian soldier was killed when they were in a Bushmaster that suffered an improvised explosive device attack and that's the power of the V-shaped hull to disperse the force of the IED, where sadly we saw other military forces who had armoured trucks that didn't have that capacity so the Bushmaster saves lives, saved Australian lives, and it's saving lives right now in the Ukraine and that's a testament to the hundreds of workers in Bendigo that are working on this every day and I'm so proud that today's announcement delivers more of that, we are deadly committed to a Future Made in Australia and today's part of that.

JOURNALIST:  A question for Andrew, on the Bushmasters and Thales's [indistinct] last year there were redundancies announced because of a lack of orders, does this provide certainty for Thales? 

ANDREW DOWNES: This announcement absolutely provides certainty to see Bushmaster continuing to be made here in Bendigo.  It is true there were some voluntary redundancies last year due to some production transition between the Hawkei and Bushmaster, but we know that this government really believes in Bushmaster and we've seen some real investment not just today but also in the integrated investment plan that was announced a couple of months ago so it absolutely provides certainty for Bushmaster right here in Bendigo. 

JOURNALIST:  What does that certainty look like; is the long term future of Thales is that quite secure? 

ANDREW DOWNES: Absolutely.  We are fully committed to working here in Bendigo in the long term and I know that army is looking at Bushmaster as the future protective platform as well.  What's important about today's announcement is it also allows us to do things like order the long lead time parts, make planning for production, you can't turn a Bushmaster around overnight.  And so today's announcement gives that certainty for production for ordering for the supply chain and all of the local businesses that also work with us here. 

JOURNALIST:  When will you start production?

ANDREW DOWNES: So we are currently working through the current order that the government has announced, I think just over 70 but I wouldn't want to go too much in to production schedules because obviously that touches upon defence capability. 

MINISTER CONROY: Thanks Andrew, and I might supplement those answers.  The delivery of this batch will be aligned with the standing up of the regiment of long range fires that will complement the high mobility artillery rocket system we are acquiring.  

On your earlier question, one part of what the Albanese Labor government is doing around supporting our defence industry and a Future Made in Australia, is being a passionate advocate for export opportunities.  Bushmasters are around the world already, obviously we gifted them to Ukraine.  But they have been sold to New Zealand, they have been sold to Fiji, in service in Indonesia, the Netherlands, and one central part of our defence industry development strategy is using the reputation and sovereign strength of the Australian Government to back in Australian workers and Australian companies and sell quality products overseas.  

So I'm engaging regularly with my counterparts around the world, banging the table saying we buy things off you which is naturally we would love to see some Bushmasters in your inventory because they save people's lives every day of the week, and we work closely with Thales and the unions on advocating and selling these products overseas. When we sell them overseas we make other military safer and we protect jobs in Australia. 

JOURNALIST:  Just following up on the previous questions; how many jobs does this contract provide?  

MINISTER CONROY:  This contract supports the hundreds of people who work for Thales here in Bendigo and their associated contractors.  This extends the production line and so this is about supporting hundreds of jobs right here in Bendigo. 

JOURNALIST:  You mentioned the Bushmasters that have been donated to Fiji.  Some have been donated to Ukraine.  Is the government planning to replace all of those with the new orders to Thales?  

MINISTER CONROY: Well, part of the 78 that I announced late last year I think it was, were replacements for some of the 120 that have been gifted to Ukraine.  So that 78 was a replacement for those gifted to Ukraine, the 15 ordered part of the $45 million contract is about standing up that new regiment for the Australian army. 

JOURNALIST:  How often do they have to be replaced? 

MINISTER CONROY:  They don't generally have to be replaced, the earliest have been in service for a good - I'm going to guess about 15 years.

ANDREW DOWNES: 20 years. 

MINISTER CONROY: 20 years.  So they have been refurbished and we are currently working out our plan for what we do with some of the earlier generation of Bushmasters but they're exceptional vehicles that have got decades of service left in the Australian army infantry. 

JOURNALIST:  What does that look like will they be on the front line next to the HIMARS systems, is that --  

MINISTER CONROY:  Well that means, and again I am hesitant to go in to details for two reasons. A, I'm not a member of the Australian Army and secondly some things do need to be vague.  But they are part of the regiment of long range fires that we are standing up, these are the command and control element, so if you can imagine we have high mobility artillery rocket systems which are giant trucks with rocket launchers on the back of them that you have seen in Ukraine used to devastating effect, this will be the command and control element where the regiment will be directed so you can see them being deployed very close, they're part of the one unit, and obviously the armour protection that Bushmaster provides is important as well as the mobility of it.  

JOURNALIST:  Lisa, you mentioned the future made in Australia app; how does this align with that, what does it mean for Bendigo and the supply chain here? 

LISA CHESTERS: What it means for Bendigo is that we can continue to invest and have those workers here.  This contract is one of those foundational contracts that secures heavy metal manufacturing in our area. So earlier today we met our electrical apprentices and boiler maker apprentices so whether it's Bendigo, [indistinct] next door, Bendigo railway yards, any other number of our Bendigo manufacturers that we have securing the defence manufacturing here ensures that we have that broader base skill that we've always had here in Bendigo and this contract secures those jobs ongoing, and just to add to what we are able to do; so just over a decade ago the feedback that the Australian army were getting from troops on the ground in Afghanistan was that Bushmasters were great, they were saving lives but incredibly hot inside.  So the team here at Thales were able to work with army to refurbish the vehicle to make it more comfortable for troops, that's one of those things that we can do when we are able to secure the manufacture, design and build right here in our country and that's an example of the partnerships that we can have by working together and it's on a regular basis that we get retired veterans coming back to Bendigo to almost do that pilgrimage back to this site to make the men and women who helped build the vehicles that really helped save lives.  

At the Australian War Memorial, for example, there's the remains of a Bushmaster that was quite heavily attacked in Afghanistan and again just that testament that whilst the vehicle didn't survive, the people inside it did.  And that's a real strength of this vehicle, and the reason why it is becoming so popular overseas. 

JOURNALIST:  Minister, you said the brake issue was organised or fixed or resolved, can you expand on that? 

MINISTER CONROY: I'll invite Andrew to add to the answer but the latest advice around the ABS braking is that Thales has identified the cause of the problem, they've identified a solution, that solution has been deployed to a number of the Hawkeis and the results in the field has been very positive and so planning has begun from the partner of defence to roll out the rest of the Hawkeis for a mediation program to have the fits installed and then rolled out to units throughout the country.  We have 1100 Hawkeis that  we want to be part of our order of battle they're essential to our mobility they're a great Australian innovation, I've driven one of them at Monegeeta, they're a brilliant capability and we're very keen to get them out in to the field.  Andrew, anything you want to add to that? No. 

JOURNALIST:  Does that mean that the government is now taking the Hawkeis because that --

MINISTER CONROY:  Yes as I said, planning has begun for the rollout of those two army units and defence will advise us, the government on when we can expect to declare full operational capability, FOC, we are yet to receive that advice, but briefings have been positive and subject to obviously further testing but early tests have been positive that I think we've found a solution. 

JOURNALIST:  How is the solution found?

MINISTER CONROY:  Well, Brigadier is there anything you want to add, why don't you come on, this is Brigadier John-Paul Ouvrier from the CASG.

BRIGADIER JOHN-PAUL OUVRIER: We worked very closely with Thales, and did some extensive testing to identify the fault with the modulator, both on the vehicles but also in the workshop underwent some bench testing.  There's essentially three fixes which will resolve the issue.  We were finding some corrosion was forming in the cavity of the ABS modulator by adjusting the installation procedure of the braking system on to the vehicle by undertaking some slight modifications of the modulator but also looking at our maintenance process of the ABS modulator will ensure we don't have the corrosion and the vehicles can be safely operated.  So we are very, very pleased to see we've got that solution in place we worked very closely and collaboratively with Thales Australia to get there and we should start seeing the vehicles rolled out in the very, very near future. 

MINISTER CONROY:  Thank you, and if I can add a couple of points about; one, I want to applaud the attitude of Thales in resolving this issue.  No one went to their corners contractually and had argy-bargy.  It was a team effort to resolve this issue and to deliver a capability essential for the Australian army but also something that we can look at exporting overseas but secondly, these sorts of fixes are much easier when you make things in this country and have a skilled workforce right here in Bendigo that can work at identifying a solution and installing that.  This is much more difficult when you have problems like this on imported equipment and so this is again part of the Albanese Labor Government's genuine future made in Australia, is you get advantages not just employment of having manufacturing close to the customer which in this case is the Australian Army.

JOURNALIST:  So Minister, is the government entertaining any plans to put long range missiles on top of Bushmasters?  

MINISTER CONROY:  Well again I want to be careful in that there is a potential tender coming forward for long range strike, Thales have indicated they intend to put forward an option in that tender I'm not going to go in to the details here because obviously we are very early stages of that process and I don't want to interfere with a process but obviously Thales has views about that I'm not sure whether Andrew wants to talk about that here or not. 

ANDREW DOWNES: Maybe after. 

MINISTER CONROY: Yes, but obviously the Bushmaster is a very versatile platform, and we are always finding new ways of using it.  Excellent I might see if there's any questions on any other news of the day, Andrew you are very welcome to exit stage right.  Any questions?  Yeah I thought there might be. 

JOURNALIST:  On Thales we had some protest outside of this Thales factory and other sites too around the country over Thales potentially supplying vehicles to Israel, do you know if they are supplying vehicles to Israel, if they do does this concern you in terms of taxpayers money? 

MINISTER CONROY: Let me be very clear, and this applies not only to Thales but the entire Australian defence industry.  We have not exported a single defence weapon to Israel over the last five years.  Over the last five years.  And the only permits for exports are componentry that have gone to Israel since the conflict began in October last year was for ADF equipment to be repaired or upgraded in Israel and returned to Australia for use by the Australian Defence Force, let me be very clear about that.  And we have indicated that we are applying a very high standard to permits and the only permits being approved are for ADF equipment being repaired or upgraded in Israel and returned here.  

We are not supplying weapons to Israel and anyone who says otherwise is lying and I'm sorry to be really frank about this but it besmirches the names of the 100,000 people who work in the Australian defence industry that suggesting that they're complicit in the genocide or anything like that is a flat out lie.  And it damages morale and it undermines confidence.  I'll give you an example closer to my home, the Greens political party have been an absolute disgrace in this area going around lying and besmirching the names of Australian workers so much so that they accused the great Australian company called Varley who are producing parts for the Australian Army of producing missiles that are then being used by the Israeli defence force to destroy buildings in Gaza.  That was a lie, and that had such a corrosive impact in our community that apprentices sought to quit Varley and had to be talked down and explained that they are not supplying parts to Israel.  

This is the divisive effect that people like the Greens political party are having in our community, not only is it undermining community confidence, it's undermining our national security, it's a disgrace and they need to stop. 

LISA CHESTERS:  There are no Bushmasters in Israel whatsoever and it didn't matter us telling that to the protesters, I guess because of our proximity to Melbourne, they caught the train and stood out front of Thales.  There are no Bushmasters in Israel and there are no plans for there to be Bushmasters in Israel. 

JOURNALIST:  Any concerns about the recent audit report into Thales and the munitions deal done under the coalition?

MINISTER CONROY: Both Thales and the department of defence through Air Marshal Leon Phillips released statements relating to the AEMO audit, I will leave that matter there. I will just make the point that in October 2022 the Deputy Prime Minister and I made a series of announcements about reforms to defence procurement, six very important reforms, they have flown through the system to improve defence procurement.  

We inherited some very problematic projects from the last government without being too political, Peter Dutton left us with 28 projects running cumulatively, 97 years late and billions of dollars over budget because he can't be trusted with defence and he was incompetent.  We are fixing that right now, any other questions. 

JOURNALIST:  I do have one more, sorry.  Has Labor gone soft on the CFMEU?

MINISTER CONROY: We have been very clear that we are looking at all options. The behaviour that has been reported regarding the CFMEU is unacceptable, it undermines confidence in trade unions. Every day delegates and union members and organisers get up and fight for better conditions and safer workplaces in their community, in their workplace, and what's been reported is a disgrace.  Tony Burke, the Industrial Relations Minister has made it clear that he's waiting for a brief from the department that will look at all options on the table regarding the CFMEU including deregistration, and that is appropriate.  We are here in a workplace that is testament to the power of unions to work with companies, to not only produce a product that puts food on people's table, it helps to defend this country and that's what I want people to think about when they think about unions.  Thanks, thank you everyone, thank you very much.

ENDS