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Related ministers and contacts
The Hon Richard Marles MP
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Defence
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The Hon Roger Cook MLA
Premier of Western Australia
The Hon Andrew Giles MP
Minister for Skills and Training
The Hon Simone McGurk MLA
Minister for Training and Workforce Development
The Hon Paul Papalia MLA
Minister for Defence Industry
Release content
29 January 2025
PRESS CONFERENCE
WEDNESDAY, 29 JANUARY 2025
SUBJECT/S: Indo-Pacific Region; National Defence Strategy; Trump Administration; AUKUS; Nature Positive; CPI Data; RBA; Cost of Living; Polls
PREMIER, ROGER COOK: Great. Thank you very much for coming everyone today for an incredibly important announcement, a very exciting announcement. I'm joined by the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles and federal Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles, Training and Workforce Development Minister Simone McGurk and Defence Industries Minister Paul Papalia. I'm also joined by Assistant Minister for Training Hannah Beazley. It's fantastic to be here for today's announcement and as you all recall, in October last year, the Deputy Prime Minister and I signed a comprehensive agreement between State Government and the Federal Government to develop our AUKUS partnership arrangements to make sure the WA can play its role as part of the AUKUS partnership. Western Australia is going to be a focal point for defence industries, making sure that we can provide the necessary infrastructure and (inaudible) to ensure that we can continue to play our part as part of the Frigate construction opportunities, but also the nuclear sub sustainment and maintenance opportunities. That means jobs and that means workforce that we will need to make sure that we can feed these growing industries. We estimate that AUKUS means more than 10,000 high-quality, high-paying manufacturing jobs right here in Western Australia. And we want to make sure that WA is set up, is ready to take advantage of this great opportunity. Today, we're announcing a new partnership with the Albanese Labor government to establish the WA Defence Industry Centre of Excellence. It will be based here at South Metro TAFE and this centre will provide state-of-the-art training for Western Australia to take up the job opportunities under the AUKUS arrangements. As you know, this is not our first rodeo when it comes to standing up large workforces for emerging, globally significant industries. South Metro TAFE has been responsible for providing literally 1000s of workers to our growing oil and gas industry, making sure that we have the young people that have the opportunities to take up the work that is available through these world leading industries, making sure these world leading industries have high quality locally trained workers to fulfill the spots that they have available. So AUKUS and the South Metro TAFE will make sure that we can continue to be a global leader when it comes to these significant industries, but also that we can continue to drive the national economy. We'll train West Aussies to undertake defence ship-building, sustainment, maintenance work and to work on nuclear submarines rotating through WA so not only will these young people get into the welding, the electrical engineering and the maritime based skills that will move here, some of them will also go on as part of the AUKUS arrangements through a rotation in Pearl Harbor to ensure that they have the skills so that we can undertake our role as part of the sustainment and maintenance work that we do on the nuclear subs. This centre will make WA a leader in defence industry training and make sure WA workers are the beneficiaries of this great AUKUS opportunity. So this is a $14.6 million joint investment between the Albanese and the WA Labor Government is an important part of really bringing to life the comprehensive agreement. We know that infrastructure is going to play an important role, but workforce potentially an even more important role in making sure that WA’s defence industries continues to play each role as a key part of our diversified WA strategy, building a strong economy, making sure young people have the work opportunities, not only opportunities of today, but to undertake the jobs of the future. And only WA Labor has a plan, a plan to continue to grow our economy through a diversified economy really focused on defence industries. And only WA Labor will do what’s right for WA. I have the great honor now to hand you over to the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: Well, thank you, and it's great to be here with Roger and the team as part of this announcement of a $14.6 million investment in establishing Western Australia defence industry Centre of Excellence. This is a partnership between the Commonwealth and West Australian Governments. It's also a partnership with South Metro TAFE, which will see the establishment of this centre of excellence across South Metro TAFE, across four of its campuses, one of them being right here. This is one of the critical building blocks to ensure that we are training the workforce necessary to create the West Australian defence industry, which is such a vital asset for our nation's capability. And the students coming through here are going to get the skills needed to be engaged in deep level maintenance of our future submarines, the skills necessary to build our future surface vessels for the Australian Defence Force, and as we've heard today, that's going to provide great opportunities and opportunities to do further training and experience in Pearl Harbor, so that we build that workforce which is such an important part of our nation's capability. We will ultimately see the new Henderson Defence Precinct, more than 4000 people working there in the fullness of time. In the fullness of time, this is an industry that's going to employ 10,000 people in Western Australia, it builds on the $8 billion commitment over 10 years for the upgrade of HMAS Stirling so that it can be the home of the Submarine Rotational Force-West, but really it can be the home of Australia's submarine operational capability. As the Premier said this builds on the agreement that the two of us signed in October of last year, which is the most significant diversification in the Western Australian economy that we will have seen in decades. This, for the first time, establishes continuous naval shipbuilding in Western Australia, in Perth, and the combination of the establishment of the Submarine Rotational Force-West at HMAS Stirling and the establishment of the Henderson Defence precinct, which will see deep level maintenance of our submarines, which will see the building of our future general purpose frigate, and we'll see the building of other defence surface vessels. That, in combination, is the single biggest defence industry offering that has been made to Western Australia since Federation. It's a really exciting plan to be a part of, we could not be more grateful for the partnership that we've had with Roger Cook and the West Australian Government. Together, we are diversifying the Western Australia economy and together, we are building Australia's defence capabilities.
MINISTER FOR TRAINING AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, SIMONE MCGURK: Can I acknowledge the Premier and the Deputy Prime Minister and the bevvy of Ministers we have here this afternoon. It is a ringing endorsement of the West Australian Government and our vocational training system that the Federal Government has agreed to have this partnership with us to have yet another National Centre of Excellence for skills. We already have a clean energy National Centre for Excellence here in Western Australia, and now we will have the defence industry skills National Centre of Excellence here in Western Australia. And as you've heard from the Deputy Prime Minister and the Premier, there's a number of reasons why it makes sense for that decision to be made. First of all, Western Australia, obviously, is the West Coast we are an important strategically placed location here for defence work. We've always done maintenance here for our submarines, and we've got a significant ship building industry, and that will only grow, as we've heard, not only because of billions of dollars’ worth of investment, but making sure that we have the skills and the quantity of labor that will be needed to do this work. Second of all, we're building on our oil and gas industry, our resources sector already a very capable workforce and an ecosystem, both for our existing workforce, but also industries that we can partner with to do this work. But finally, we have here an incredible TAFE system, particularly in South Metro TAFE, where the Centre of Excellence will be placed. Just last year, it was named the leading defence industry vocational training centre here at the national awards for defence industry, so it's already been recognised. South Metro TAFE has already been recognised as an important resource here for the defence industry, not only to partner with defence itself, but all the related industries that will need to feed into this work to do course development, subject development, particularly around nuclear powered subs, and the extra work that will be needed there. We’re making sure that we're partnering with industry so that we know exactly what is needed in terms, of course, development, as I said before, also the breadth of the quantity of people that we will need across this area, and finally, sending the message to the community that there will be 1000s of jobs. There will be excellent jobs, well-paid, interesting, these will be jobs for life in the defence industry and we want people to think about training. Of course, we've got fee- free and low fee training offerings through our vocational system, again as part because of partnership with the Federal Government, there's never been a better time to train in Western Australia. Again, I thank the Federal Government for this partnership, and I look forward to seeing this work come to fruition in the next couple of years.
MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING, ANDREW GILES: Thanks Simone. It's great to be here at South Metro TAFE review with Minister Beazley, with the Premier, of course, and the Deputy Prime Minister. Today is a really exciting day. The $14.6 million that we're investing in new Centre for Excellence is another step forward in the incredibly strong partnership between the Albanese Labor Government and the Cook WA Labor government. It will mean not only fulfilling all those great national aspirations and imperatives the Deputy Prime Minister has articulated in terms of our defence industry, it will mean for many, many West Australians, building a bridge between the skills they want and jobs we desperately need done- great, secure jobs upon which people can really plan to have a future. It leverages off so many qualities that we see already in this TAFE and across the Western Australian skills and training architecture. It also opens more doors by engaging more directly with people in schools and indeed with encouraging more women to engage with the fantastic opportunities in the defence industry in WA. The partnership that we have through the National Skills Agreement, a $30 billion commitment between state and territory governments, is anchored in an understanding of local markets, and we deeply appreciate the understanding the Minister brings to her role and to the communities that she represents along the length and the breadth of this great state. Today's investment builds on that partnership and will open the door for many more Western Australians, to get the skills they want in areas we need right across the defence industry space and I'm really pleased to hand over to my friend, Minister Papalia who will make some additional comments.
MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY, PAUL PAPALIA: As you've heard, WA is on the front line of this great national endeavor to boost our sovereign defence capability. And it didn't happen by accident, When we came to office in 2017 there was no voice for the Western Australian defence sector in the national debate. We created the portfolio, we appointed a defence advocate, a former senior military officer, as the first the state's defence advocate. We created Defence West, and then in 2018 we published a Strategy for Defence and Defence Industry aimed at delivering $3 billion of investment into the state. Well, we exceeded that. We've already passed that ambition, and today we're launching the Defence and Defence Industry Strategy for 2025 this one sets the target of making our defence sector the second biggest contributor to WA’s economy in this state, and it aims for delivering on that ambition towards 2040, and beyond. It acknowledges that continuous ship building and sustainment of submarines will offer multi generations of opportunity for Western Australians, but more importantly, will ensure that our men and women who go into harm's way on our behalf get the best possible equipment and the best possible support so they can fight and win and return home safely.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PAPALIA: The Defence Force have to be ready to defend the nation's interests wherever and whenever they're required. It's required, and what we've got to do, what we collectively need to do, as governments, as industry players, as the Australian people, is ensure that those people we ask to put themselves in harm or harm's way, and it may be added at a very short period of very short notice, we need to ensure that they get the best equipment and the best support we've seen. We were at war for 20 years before that happened. Before 9/11 people had no idea that was going to happen. So you need to be capable of responding to a threat at short notice. We know the defence strategic review identified the horizon for war is shorter than 10 years. We don't know when it will come, but we have to be ready.
JOURNALIST: Who's the best candidate?
PAPALIA: What are you talking about? Well, we're in a challenging environment. Clearly, the South China, or China, is a significant player in the region. They've done things like, in the last year, acquired 300 nuclear weapons. They are massively growing their defence capability. It's going to influence the region, but there are players all around the world who have the capacity to reach into our sphere of influence and have capacity to impact Australia. We’ve got to be ready to defend our interests, and what we have to be ready to do is help those who do that.
JOURNALIST: Do you agree, China is a big one?
MARLES: I appreciate the question. The Defence Strategic Review and the National Defence Strategy has articulated that our strategic circumstances now are as complicated and difficult as they've really been at any point since the end of the Second World War. I mean, you can look around the globe right now and see what's happening, to understand that the global rules based order is under pressure, it's clearly under pressure in Eastern Europe, but it's under pressure in the Indo Pacific as well. You've asked about China. I mean, China has engaged in the most significant conventional military build-up that we have seen since the end of the Second World War- that shapes the strategic landscape that we live in. It shapes our region, and we need to be mindful of that. When you look at right now the operational tempo, particularly our Navy, which is here, very close to Fleet Base West that it's as high as it's been. And we are seeing our ships and our submarines active in to our north west, doing operations throughout South China Sea, East China Sea, asserting the rules based order- freedom of navigation. And the reason they're doing all of that is that this is fundamental to Australia's prosperity. This state knows better than anyone the importance of trade for our national prosperity. The physical manifestation of trade is our sea lines of communication. You can literally see that when you go to Port Headland in terms of the size of that port and the ships that are leaving there multiple times a day, but it's really important that those ships have freedom of navigation in where they go and the delivery of their cargo, that is literally the arteries of Australia's economy. And what we need to be doing right now is to make sure that we are asserting that right to provide our support to the maintenance of the global rules based order and to the collective security of the region in which we live.
JOURNALIST: On AUKUS, I realise the US Congress has said some very nice things since the election of Donald Trump about the future of AUKUS. But Trump doesn't always care what Congress thinks. Have you heard from him? What his attitude is to that and to the provision of submarines?
MARLES: Well, look this morning, I had a call with the new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. It went really well, very warm, a sense of common purpose about the role of both Australia and America and the world, the role of Australia and America in the Indo Pacific. And we talked about AUKUS and the need for us to progress that. And I'm really excited, as Secretary Hegseth is in building this relationship going forward. That conversation this morning builds on the meeting that Senator Wong had with Secretary Marco Rubio, the new Secretary of State in the United States. Again, a person who's been very clear about the importance of AUKUS, who's been very clear about American leadership in the Indo Pacific. She also met with Mike Waltz and, of course, the Prime Minister spoke with President Trump himself in the immediate aftermath of his election victory. We are very confident about the relationship that we're building with the Trump administration. We are very confident about the future of American leadership under the Trump administration in the Indo Pacific, which is so essential to Australia's national interest. And I'm genuinely excited about working with Secretary Hegseth and building the relationship with the Trump administration, which will take the Alliance forward.
JOURNALIST: On that call, did you discuss President Trump's threat to take Greenland and Panama Canal by military force?
MARLES: We talked about the importance of American leadership in the Indo Pacific. It was a really good call, and there was a warmth in it. But what there really was, was a sense and a commitment to see American leadership within our region, and that's, you know, fundamentally, that's what's in our national interest. That's what's so important for Australia. American leadership has underpinned the global rules based order since the end of the Second World War. It's absolutely clear to me that we will see a continuation of that under the Trump administration.
JOURNALIST: How confident are you that renegotiations of the AUKUS deal isn’t on the cards given his eradicate nature (inaudible)?
MARLES: We, we are working with this administration and going step by step in terms of the actions and the statements that they've made. And when you look at them, what there is, is a consistency in support for AUKUS. And that goes right back to when the legislation which enabled AUKUS passed through the US Congress, at the end of 2023 with the support of the whole of the political spectrum in the United States, which included Republicans. And my call this morning, the calls that Foreign Minister Penny Wong has had with her counterparts, just adds and affirms that that support is there. And we are very confident about building this relationship, and we're excited to do so
JOURNALIST: Mr. Trump has a bit of a reputation of strong arming his interest for America. That is fair enough, he stands up for American interests. But how will you and the Albanese government stand up for Australia's interests when Mr. Trump was very strong on certain parts?
MARLES: I think the point to make here, AUKUS is a good deal. AUKUS is a good deal for American industry. It's a good deal for Australian industry. AUKUS is a good deal in terms of the strategic interests of our nation of Australia, and of the strategic interests of the United States, and all of that is really clear. And I think those who we've spoken to, can see that, and that is why you have seen consistent support across the political spectrum in America, including the Republicans for AUKUS. And just reiterate in the call I had this morning could not have gone better and builds on the call that Minister Wong had with the counterpart, Michael Rubio immediately after the inauguration, which in turn goes on the call that Prime Minister Albanese had with President Trump himself. We are very confident about progressing our relationship with the United States, keeping our key equities front and centre, of which, of course AUKUS is first and foremost. And we're confident about that, because at the end of the day, AUKUS is a good deal for both the United States and Australia.
JOURNALIST: On nature positive, backbenchers are agitating for a vote to come on next week in the Senate. Will there be one?
MARLES: Well, you know, we don't control the Senate, so I make that point first up. We continue to work on environmental reform, the environment clearly matters. But I'd also make this point in terms of environmental reform, what we really need to see is speed in the approval processes and certainty, and that is something that is being sought by the resources sector in this state. Environmental reform needs to work for the resources sector in this state, because we understand how important the resources industry is for Western Australia, but in fact, how important the resources industry is for the whole national economy. So as we take environmental reform forward, that is front and centre in our mind.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
MARLES: As I point out-
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) eastern states?
MARLES: Our focus is on ensuring that we see speed in processes and certainty. And that is what the resources sector needs, and that's what we'll continue to work with them, with the Western Australian Government of course, to make sure that any environmental reform works for the resources sector across the country but here in Western Australia.
JOURNALIST: The Prime Minister was here on Monday. Did he forget to discuss the nature positive package coming up for a vote with the Premier?
MARLES: Well, if the Premier wants to comment. I was obviously not privy to those conversations, but I make the comments that I've just made.
JOURNALIST: Is the government examining options to have more than three of the new general purpose frigates built overseas?
MARLES: We've been really clear that what we want to see with the general purpose frigate is two things. Firstly, that we see the general purpose frigate coming into operation as quickly as possible. That is the essential capability need of the nation, and we've committed to seeing a general purpose frigate brought into service in this decade, and that will be the fastest acquisition of a major surface combatant of this kind in our peacetime history. But from there, we want to see the transfer of the build of the general purpose frigate to Henderson as quickly as possible. It's not the only part, but it is a key part of the establishment of continuous naval ship building here in Western Australia at the Henderson Defence Precinct. And so those the two tenders that we've down selected to which we did at the end of last year, the Mitsubishi and TKMS, they are very aware that a key part of what we are seeking to do is to have the transfer of the build to WA as quickly as possible.
JOURNALIST: Would the government consider Japan's offer to have an upgraded Mogami delivered earlier than the 2029 as outlined by the country's Defense Chief.
MARLES: Well, we will work very closely with Mitsubishi and with the Japanese government. We will, of course, with TKMS. They are the two tenderers that have been down selected. That was the announcement that we made at the end of last year. And we will progress with this process as rapidly as possible to see a decision made as quickly as we can in order to have the first of the new general purpose frigates in service as quickly as possible. And clearly all of those details we will discuss with both tenderers.
JOURNALIST: With the core inflation data out today does this compel the RBA to cut rates this month?
MARLES: Well, it's not going to surprise you that I'm not going to comment on the RBA decision. That's obviously for the RBA. I mean, the inflation data today is clearly good news. We want to see inflation going down. I would note that the Treasurer is either on his feet or has just given a press conference and has spoken about this in more detail, so I'll leave more detailed comments to him. But what this affirms, really, is the focus of this government in terms of the budgets that we've handed down and all the budget statements we've made on cost of living. It's why we put in place a tax cut for every income earner. That's why we've seen energy bill relief around the country. That's why we're seeing more affordable childcare and cheaper medicines. Every key decision that we've been making in the budget considerations that we've had have been around cost of living, easing the burden on Australians, and that will continue to be our focus.
JOURNALIST: We've seen the Prime Minister's popularity crash. Could a rate card be your lifeline do you think?
MARLES: Look, we we're just going to keep focusing on what I’ve just said. I know the Prime Minister is 100 per cent focused on the question of cost of living. His number one priority is, as it is, of course, the number one priority of all Australians, or Western Australians. And we know how difficult the last few years have been. We know that we have seen ourselves in a global inflationary environment, and what's being experienced here is being experienced around the world. But it's really important that we are doing everything within our power to deal with this. We welcome the news today. But the job is far from done, and we will continue to focus on those cost of living measures which ease the burden for Australians.
ENDS