Press conference, Henderson Shipyard

SUBJECTS: Albanese Govt’s investment in Australian Army landing craft; future made in Australia; partnership with Austal; spying allegations

JOSH WILSON: The Albanese Government, Paul Papalia, the Minster for Defence Industry in the Cook WA Labor Government. Also Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, and, of course, CEO of Austal, Paddy Gregg. This is a shipbuilding and industrial precinct of national significance and the announcement that we're here to make today continues the work that occurs here. It's work of national significance. It means that we have the sovereign shipbuilding capacity that Australia needs. It means that we can play a constructive role in our region. It brings a whole range of broader development benefits, the kind of things we get when we invest in Australian know-how, Australian work force development, capability, and self-sufficiency. Shipbuilding, of course, is critical to that, for an island continent nation like Australia and it's in keeping with the Albanese Labor Government's commitment to a Future Made in Australia. To say more about the specific announcement, I will hand over to Minister Pat Conroy.  

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Thank you, Josh, and it's a pleasure to be in WA again. Not quite as sunny as I usually experience here, but it's beautiful to be here and I also acknowledge the Indigenous owners of the land upon which we meet. Can I thank Josh for welcoming us, can I thank Minister Papalia. There is no stronger voice for WA, particularly in the defence industry, than the Minister. Can I acknowledge Chief of Army, General Simon Stuart, Paddy Gregg from Austal, Jim McDowell, Deputy Secretary of Naval Shipbuilding, and the many Defence officials standing behind us as well as representatives from Birdon as well.

Ladies and gentlemen, protecting Australians, ensuring the safety of our citizens, and promoting our interest is the highest duty of any federal government, and the Albanese Labor Government is committed to that and has been committed to that from day one. We've made a series of policy decisions over the last two years, including some rapid announcements over the last two weeks.

In the last two weeks alone, I've announced that we're equipping the Australian Army with its first loitering munition. I've announced the largest ever contract for an Australian manufacturer of small, uncrewed aerial systems. I've announced the first successful firing of a naval strike missile, one of the most advanced ship-killing missiles in the world from HMAS Sydney this month. Defence is front of mind for the Albanese Labor Government, as is a Future Made in Australia.

The Chief of the Army was reminding me, as we walked over, that this week is the 15-month anniversary of the delivery of the Defence Strategic Review, and the Defence Strategic Review had a number of critical announcements, but two of them were a commitment to continuous naval shipbuilding in WA, something no Government had ever committed to or delivered previously, and a transformation of the Australian Army. I want to pay tribute to the Chief of Army for his vision for transforming the Australian Army into one focused on littoral manoeuvre and long-range strike. And today is another milestone in those two important themes of the DSR - continuous naval shipbuilding and the transformation of the Australian Army into one focused on littoral manoeuvre.

To enable littoral manoeuvre, we need to invest in landing craft for the Australian Army. We are committing to building 26 very significant landing craft for the Australian Army - 18 landing craft medium, which will be around 500 tonnes in size, and eight landing craft heavy, that will be 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes. As big as a frigate, ladies and gentlemen. And I'm announcing today that the Albanese Labor Government has formally approved the first stage of that project which is the $2 billion project to build 18 landing craft medium at Austal, using a Birdon design.

And this is the first stage of our continuous naval shipbuilding for Western Australia, beginning with landing craft medium, transitioning into those gigantic landing craft heavy, and then on to eight general purpose frigates and a large optimally crewed surface vessel, all delivering thousands of jobs to West Australians and continuous naval shipbuilding which is essential to our naval capability.

Now, importantly, we are bringing these projects forward. We are accelerating them to acknowledge the strategic circumstances that we face. We are bringing forward delivery of landing craft medium by two years. We will be beginning construction next year with the first one to be delivered in 2026 and we are bringing forward delivery of landing craft heavy by a massive seven years with the first one to be delivered in 2028.

The first stage, landing craft medium, is a $2 billion project that will drive and create 1,100 direct jobs in the Henderson maritime precinct and the associated supply chains. That's good news for companies like Austal, and it's great news for Austal workers and their families and communities. But, importantly, this Future Made in Australia, and dare I say, this future made in Western Australia, is also essential to our national security. It's essential to transforming the Australian Army. It's essential to protecting Australia and our interests, and we're relying on everyone here to deliver that.

So I will hand over to Minister Papalia to make a few remarks, and then we'll be happy to answer questions.  

PAUL PAPALIA: Thanks, Pat. As Minister Conroy just said, this is a huge announcement, not just for Western Australia, but for the nation. For the first time we are going to have continuous shipbuilding in Western Australia. That means generations of jobs.

People around the world in towns and cities where they have built ships for the navies of those nations have multiple generations engaged in that activity. People can grow up knowing that if they want, they can enter an industry that can employ them for their entire careers and their children and their children's children. That happens in places like Barrow in the UK, in Newport News in the United States, and now it can happen in Perth in Western Australia.

The ability to know that we have certainty of demand for - provides certainty for - obviously for people looking for employment, but also our industry to be able to invest in capability and infrastructure, and for the nation. We will now know that we have a strategic shipbuilder capable of delivering in the interests of the nation whenever it's required.

It's an extraordinary moment, it comes on the eve of the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference, our own homegrown conference here in Western Australia, where for the first time all three admirals from the US, UK, and Australia, the AUKUS admirals, chiefs of navy, will be in town talking about this relationship and this pathway forward. Obviously we also have our Western Australian Chief of Army here as well. So we're not limiting it to that. The Chief of Air Force is coming, too. It's a big moment. This announcement is huge. The conference is a focus on Western Australia, its contribution to AUKUS, and its delivery of support to the nation's security.  

MINISTER CONROY: I invite Paddy to say a few words on behalf of Austal.

PADDY GREGG: Good morning, everybody. Nobody should underestimate just how significant this announcement is today. It's absolutely fantastic news for Austal. Fantastic news for Western Australia, for all our suppliers, our partners and shipbuilding in general. Commitment of funding builds on the announcement that has been previously made and makes this program very, very real so we're very, very excited by what's been announced this morning and we look forward to a long future where we can give careers to people and really bring prosperity to Western Australia and to ship building. So thank you very much for your time this morning.

MINISTER CONROY: Thanks, Paddy. We'll start with questions related to today's announcement and move on to other Defence matters.

SPEAKER: Minister, [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: We've approved the acquisition of 18 landing craft medium. The total project worth is slightly north of $2 billion. The contract with Austal is obviously part of that $2 billion. I'm not in a position to give you the exact figure due to commercial in confidence.
 
SPEAKER: What's the operational role of these 18 [indistinct].

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'll invite the Chief of Army to give you some detailed answers, but these 500-tonne landing craft are capable of carrying about 90 tonnes of cargo. So that's one main battle tank, an infantry fighting vehicle with two Bushmasters, or four high-mobility artillery rocket systems. But I'll invite the Chief of Army to talk about the operational deployment.  

LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIMON STUART: Repeat the question.  

SPEAKER: Can you explain the operational role of these landing vehicles?

LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIMON STUART: So the Defence Strategic Review that was announced about 15 months ago said that Army needed to be optimised for operations in our region. These landing craft, the mediums and the heavy, enable that operating concept. Essentially, it means that we can force project smaller, more lethal, and more manoeuvrable force into our region to work with our navy, our air force, or space and cyber forces, to assist our regional partners, and to work together with allies and partners.  

SPEAKER: So does it enable [indistinct]?

LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIMON STUART: Absolutely, yes.

SPEAKER: [Indistinct].

LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIMON STUART: What it does, is it adds to our navy's capability. It means that we've got smaller, but more mobile and a larger number of options to project force into the region. And so to help us provide more options for our navy and for our allies and partners. So more capacity, more protection, more force projection.  

MINISTER CONROY: And if I could just add one part, it's important to see this concept being marrying to the other part of the modernisation and transformation of the Australian Army which is being equipped with long-range strike for force projection. This is all about our strategy of deterrence by denial, of keeping Australia safe, by letting any potential aggressor know that we can strike them from longer distances, from multiple places. So we're moving the Australian Army from having its longest range strike weapon being 40-kilometre artillery pieces to being able to fire missiles in excess of 500 kilometres initially, and potentially up to 1,000 kilometres through the acquisition of high-mobility artillery rocket systems that can be transported on these landing craft and firing missiles manufactured from this country and that manufacturing will commence from next year. So this is part of the broad transformation of the Australian Army to help it to deter potential aggressors.  

SPEAKER: [Indistinct].

MINISTER CONROY: I will let Paddy give you more details about the construction techniques, but we start building them next year. First delivery in 2026 and we expect the production run to run into the early 2030s of landing craft medium. Paddy, just a question about will you build multiple ones at once.  

PADDY GREGG: Yes, absolutely. So we invest heavily in modular manufacturing, having a program of work allows us to roll workers through phases of the program. Exactly what we've done on the K-class program and the Guardian-class program. We are having delivered 20 Guardian-class vessels over the last six years and setting a program out allows us to deliver with maximum efficiency and set a drum beat up for the production work force.  

SPEAKER: With the fast turnaround time, that doesn't really provide much time for tradies. Do you have the work force currently or [indistinct]?

PADDY GREGG: Yeah, good question. We've got a highly skilled core of shipbuilders here. If I add up all the experience of the current workers here we get to in excess of 3,000 years of shipbuilding experience. So having a really strong core allows us to build on that and, you know, bringing in apprentices, bringing in new people, bringing in people who are skilled but perhaps in other industries and we can teach them the shipbuilding aspects of what they need to do. We're really confident that we will be able to attract, train, and retain people ready for this project.

Having that longevity of program, the continuous naval shipbuilding program that Government and Defence have given us, it really allows us to attract people and train them up so we've got the skills today ready to move into heavy landing craft, ready to move into general purpose frigate, ready to move into optimally crewed surface vessels. A very, very exciting time.  

SPEAKER: What other industries will you be targeting for workers?

PADDY GREGG: So we look at skills and trades. So electricians, pipe fitters, mechanical fitters, so we have a lot of those skills in Western Australia. Having that longevity of order book should allow us to attract people back to an industry that can give them a career for probably the first time ever.  

MINISTER CONROY: And that's the critical point of continuous naval shipbuilding. An apprentice starting at Austal today can work their entire working life in the Henderson strip building vessels to help protect this nation. We know there will be some people who once they get a trade will go up to Karratha and work in FIFO and that's fine, people want to earn a good living.

But people also want stability, and they know that they can do a good job here, get a mortgage, raise a family knowing that they can work on landing craft medium, and then landing craft heavy, and subject to further negotiations with Austal, as the strategic shipbuilding pilot, potentially general-purpose frigates and the large optionally crewed surface vessel.

This is the first time a Government's committed to continuous naval shipbuilding in the west, as Minister Papalia noted and we are delivering that, and it's the first time that a federal government has committed to multiple ship projects with one company to give that continuity of work force because we know we can't compete with the mining industry on wages, but we can compete on certainty of work, regularity of work, and, quite frankly, people doing their patriotic duty.
 
SPEAKER: On another issue, on AUKUS, ARPANSA has given site approval for a prescribed radiation facility on HMS Stirling. Can you give us more information about this waste management facility, what sort of waste will actually be dealt with there?

MINISTER CONROY: So, the plan is that we will build an industrial facility on HMAS Stirling to help support the maintenance that is required for Submarine Rotational Force - West and then when we start maintaining our own Virginia-class submarines. This sort of maintenance will require us to look at componentry associated with the nuclear propulsion system as well as the broader submarine. It will involve consumables that will have low levels of radioactivity, think things like gloves and consumables that you use in maintenance.

The level of radioactivity is similar to what is around 100 other sites around the country - think hospitals that use radioactive materials in imaging and so we've been - ARPANSA has granted a licence for the temporary storage of those low-level waste materials at HMAS Stirling, an industrial facility, until they're transferred to the permanent site for our radioactive materials associated with our nuclear-powered submarines.  

SPEAKER: So initially it will be material from US and UK subs and then from the Australian nuclear subs?

MINISTER CONROY: No, no, it will be material that Australian sailors and civilians use to maintain submarines. So think things like gloves and other things that naturally become slightly radioactive as they handle componentry. So this is not other people's waste. This is Australian waste.  

SPEAKER: How long will it be on site before it's transferred?

MINISTER CONROY: We're working through those details. Obviously we've made a commitment to establish a process to identify and build the repository for the radioactive waste associated with the nuclear propulsion systems. But this licence will cover the temporary storage. 

SPEAKER: Should the local community be concerned?

MINISTER CONROY: They shouldn't at all. As I said, this is akin to what occurs in 100 other sites around the country. Anywhere that has a hospital that deals with medical imaging that involves radioactive isotopes has exactly the same level of waste. This is completely safe and has been approved by the regulatory authorities.  

SPEAKER: It still needs construction approval but is it a done deal, effectively?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'm not going to prejudge processes that go through the approvals process for construction. But the granting of the licence is a critical stage.  

SPEAKER: That's temporary storage, where will it go after that?

MINISTER CONROY: As I said, as part of the AUKUS announcement, Deputy Prime Minister Marles and I announced that we will be establishing on Defence land, either current or acquired Defence land, the repository to store the reactors associated with our nuclear-powered submarines. We will announce that process on how to identify the site and then that will hold all the waste permanently under the safest possible conditions around the world.
 
SPEAKER: What's the timeline [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: We'll announce that process in due course. Any other questions on Defence matters?

SPEAKER: How is the landing craft medium program being run within Defence? Is it a CASG program, is it an NSSG?

MINISTER CONROY: I will invite Deputy Secretary McDowell to answer but it's been run through the Naval Shipbuilding and Sustainment Group.  

JIM McDOWELL: What's the question?

MINISTER CONROY: Who is managing this within Defence, it's your group, isn't it?

JIM McDOWELL: Yeah, so maritime activities tend to be managed by NSSG regardless of the customer. This is clearly a maritime activity. Very, very similar to navy maritime activity. So it's appropriate that NSSG should manage this.  

SPEAKER: Thanks.  

SPEAKER: We've got time for a couple more questions.  

SPEAKER: The timeline for [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: I will refer you to recent estimates testimony on that. We're going through the process of identifying the alignment for the Henderson maritime precinct and HMAS Stirling as part of the single biggest investment into the defence industry in WA. We will literally see thousands of jobs construct - generated in constructing the facilities at HMAS Stirling. Hundreds of jobs in sustaining both SRF-West submarines and our own Virginia class and obviously 1,100 direct jobs here.  

SPEAKER: A quick question for Chief of Army, if we could. Is it possible to ask a question?

MINISTER CONROY: Can you tell us what it's on?

SPEAKER: Sure, it's on the alleged Russian spy.

MINISTER CONROY: No, well, I'll handle that.
 
SPEAKER: Okay. Are you confident that no serious material was handed to the Russians?

MINISTER CONROY: What I can say is we take this breach very seriously. It's important to say our systems worked and the two individuals were caught and charged. But, of course, Defence is reviewing its security systems in conjunction with our other relevant agencies. What the Prime Minister said when he was asked about it was absolutely true. Our adversaries in this area are very nimble. They are changing their approaches constantly and we have to change them as well and respond to that. As part of the legal proceedings, obviously, there will be examination of what information was accessed. Any other questions, ladies and gentlemen?

ENDS

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