Press Conference, HMAS Albatross

HMAS ALBATROSS, NOWRA

SUBJECTS: $313 million funding for Sikorsky Australia, Naval maintenance of helicopters, Chinese flotilla off the coast of Australia.

FIONA PHILLIPS: I’m delighted to be here at Sikorsky Australia today, of course with my good friend the Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery the Honourable Pat Conroy, and of course representatives here from Sikorsky Australia, and importantly Defence as well. 

HMAS Albatross plays such a pivotal role in our community here, but obviously right around Australia as well. I'm a proud local. I grew up, you know, watching HMAS Albatross and then going on to work at HMAS Albatross before I came to Parliament. I think nothing makes me happier than being here today, seeing the wonderful work that our Defence Industry workers are doing to maintain, support and ensure that our Sea Hawk Romeo helicopters are fit for their purpose. 

We've just had a chat with many of the apprentices and workers here and Sikorsky Australia employ 200 people here already. Many locals, many apprentices and it's such a great support for our local community, for those families secure jobs and they really provide so much for our community. 

So today I'm really pleased that we are announcing a $313 million for Sikorsky Australia to continue that important work, but we're also growing that as well which will mean an additional 75 jobs here at Sikorsky Australia, including employing more apprentices as well. 

I'll hand over to Pat to explain more of the details, but I cannot say strongly enough how excited I am to see that we're having more of this deeper maintenance right here in the Shoalhaven, right here just outside of HMAS Albatross. 

We have the capability here, we have the workers here, and this is going to mean more local jobs, more secure jobs and that is something I love supporting. Thank you. 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Thanks Fiona. It's a pleasure to be here again at Sikorsky Australia, right next to door to HMAS Albatross, which is the crown jewels of Naval aviation in Australia. It's great to be here with Fiona Phillips, the fabulous and fierce member for Gilmore. A week doesn't go by in Canberra that Fiona's not banging down my door demanding more for her community, whether it's here in Nowra or in the broader electorate, she's incredibly passionate about supporting her community. 

I'm just going to wait for the Hercules to take off. This is the beauty of doing live TV at an operating aviation station. 

So it's great to be here at Sikorsky Australia, joined by Fiona Phillips, the member for Gadigal, member for Gilmore. I also acknowledge representatives from the Australian Defence Force and represents from Sikorsky Australia and Lockheed Martin. 

And I'm particularly pleased to be joined by apprentices and recently completed apprentices that are examples of the highly skilled Defence Industry in this country. A hundred thousand people in this country get up every day and work in the Defence Industry, to work to make this country safer. The Australian Defence Force can't do what we need to do without the support from these hundred thousand patriots who get up every day and make our country safer. So thank you very much, guys. 

For more than a decade the MH60R or Romeo Sea Hawk helicopters have been the workhorse of the Navy's aviation fleet. And as Fiona said today, I'm announcing that the Government has signed a $313 million contract to deliver Through Life Support for every single Sea Hawk helicopter in the Navy fleet. 

This means that whatever the helicopter's purpose, whether it's hunting, deterring and destroying submarines, having the capacity to destroy surface vessels or transporting humans and cargo, that support will occur right here. 

This means that Australian workers will maintain and sustain these aircraft from the moment it's delivered through to the end of their life. 

As Fiona said, the $313 million contract will create 75 highly skilled jobs, also allowing Sikorsky to add even more apprentices through apprentice training program. 

Importantly, this contract will also support 200 jobs at the company's maintenance and logistics fleet in Nowra. 

Ensuring we can undertake the maintenance repair overhaul and upgrade of ADF aircraft here in Australia is one of the government's sovereign defence industrial priorities. This contract demonstrates how we're delivering these priorities to ensure we have a strong sovereign defence industrial base to support a strong and resilient ADF. 

This contract also means that if the United States navy requires maintenance repair overhaul and upgrade support for their Sea Hawk helicopters in the Indo‑Pacific we can do that work here if needed. 

And in 2023 Sikorsky Australia here in Nowra completed their first ever deep level maintenance of a US Navy Romeo helicopter. And I know when I visit the Pentagon that the US Navy talk so highly of the work done here in Nowra, that the work was at least as good as what was being done in the United States and this contract builds the capability to do even more of that work here. 

So this contract of over $300 million is about more jobs in Nowra. 75 additional jobs meaning the workforce here is 275, it means 20 apprenticeships in Nowra training the next generation of highly skilled workers who get up every day to support Australia and make it safer. 

So this contract is good news for the ADF, it's good news for Sikorsky, but it's also great news for the people and community of Nowra led by Fiona Phillips. 

I'm also delighted to make a separate announcement today that Defence will continue to provide access to HMAS Albatross to the New South Wales Rural Fire Services aerial firefighting operations for a further three years. 

The extension of the country agreement between Defence and RFS will provide certainty and ongoing support for aerial firefighting in the region. 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all those RFS volunteers for their readiness to respond to emergencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

With the bushfire season still under way, this agreement between Defence and RFS will help ensure the local community is safe and protected. I know that anyone who lived through the Black Summer in 2019/20 knows how important the RFS is, how they run towards danger to protect their local community, and that's complemented by what Defence does. 

I only heard just then that we had Australian Naval aviators in Romeo helicopters evacuating people during that Black Summer, and that's complemented by the support that HMAS Albatross will continue to provide for the RFS aerial firefighting asset. 

So this is a really important relationship that we're really delighted to extend. 

So I'll conclude my prepared remarks there and open up to questions. We'll start with questions about today's announcement and then obviously to take questions on news of the day afterwards. 

JOURNALIST: Can you break down the $313 million, what's that actually going towards? Obviously wages will be a part of it for new employees, but can you explain a bit more where that money will go? 

MINISTER CONROY: I'll do that and then I'll invite General Jeremy King to add if he'd like. So this is for what's called Through Life Support, so this is to be able to maintain, repair and overhaul the Romeo helicopters. That obviously means we need more staff; that's why 75 more jobs are part of this package. But it involves really extensive work in the fact that we're stripping back the aircraft to its bones and repairing and maintaining it and getting it ready to go out to sea again. 

I might see if Jeremy has anything he'd like to add. 

JEREMY KING: Yeah, so from an engineering perspective, as the Minister said, stripping those aircraft down, having them ready to be put back on ships and sent back out, and with the logistics and supply making sure that they go to sea with the correct equipment to allow them to perform their role for the tenure of that deployment. 

MINISTER CONROY: Thanks, Jeremy. And it's really important, it complements what happens at sea. We met a young sailor called Isaac who's an aviation technician earlier today and he's done three deployments, and his job is to maintain the aircraft while they're on the ships, but obviously for the deeper level maintenance you need a state-of-the-art world class facility like the one over here. 

JOURNALIST: You mentioned Fiona's been banging down the door about trying to get, you know, more funding for this. Were there any other locations [indistinct]? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well there's always a discussion, quite frankly, about how much work you do in country and how much gets done around the world. What I can say to you is without Fiona's commitment to this region this contract would not have been delivered. And this is a contract where 84 per cent of the work has been done in Australia, where 75 new jobs have been created right here in Nowra and that's down to the advocacy of Fiona Phillips. 

JOURNALIST: You talk about the involvement of the US birds and the ability to service those birds here. Has Albatross been servicing American aircraft, and is this at all connected to the AUKUS partnership? 

MINISTER CONROY: It's related to the AUKUS commitment in that AUKUS is all about expanding the industrial base of all three nations and expanding cooperation. So your question is have we ever done it, the answer is yes, we did one in 2023. That was the first depot level maintenance of a US Navy Romeo helicopter done here, and it was done to exactly the same standards as it was done in the continental United States, and the US Navy was very keen on that. 

We've been very clear that we're interested in shifting to what's called a coproduction and co‑sustainment model where work can be done the US assets in Australia, and that includes Romeo helicopters. 

We've done it similarly in the West Coast where a US Navy submarine docked at HMAS Stirling, swapped out its load of Mark 48 heavyweight torpedos and had torpedos that were from the Australian inventory that had been maintained and HMAS Stirling subbed in to that submarine and they were identical. 

So you can see more of that happening under the AUKUS agreement. 

JOURNALIST: Does Australia pay for that service? 

MINISTER CONROY: No, that is work where we're joined under contracts with the US Navy. This is not about charity; this is about growing the industrial base of all countries. And it's in the US interest but also ours because it gross scale. So in my own region we've got RAAF Williamtown, which is the home of the Joint Strike Fighter. We're building a maintenance facility to maintain the stealth codings. If we just did it for our own fleet we'd only need two base. We build it with six bays so we can service other nations on a cost recovery basis. 

JOURNALIST: So you talk about the level of maintenance that will be done under the new contract. How does that differ from what's happening already? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well I might invite Jeremy to add to that, but you will see more maintenance occurring because we're expanding the fleet. So at the moment we've got 23 Romeo helicopters. By the end of 2026 we'll have another 13. So that means more work going through this facility, which is obviously one factor in why 75 new jobs are being created. 

JEREMY KING: Thanks, Minister. So these aircraft are US Navy configuration standard, so we apply the same maintenance configurations, the same maintenance standards that the US Navy apply to for those aircraft. 

As the Minister said, really it's not an expansion in terms of doing something differently, it's really about expanding to accommodate those additional 13 aircraft that are coming in to build our fleet to 36 Sea Hawk helicopters. 

JOURNALIST: And we're talking full life or through life, so do we have an expectation of how long the Romeos will remain in service? 

JEREMY KING: We have another 15 years of service at least for these aircraft. We have a capability assurance program that underpins the fleet to ensure that we treat obsolescence, and we keep these as long as possible, but we also stay aligned with the US Navy configuration. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, this announcement comes just a week after the Chinese Navy conducted a live fire exercise off the east coast of Australia. What do you make of the Chinese Ambassador's comments saying those warships pose no threat and they'll actually be sending more to this region? 

MINISTER CONROY: I might answer that at the end because I may stray into political territory, so I never stray into political territory with representatives from the Australian Defence Force behind me. I'll answer that question before we go. 

JOURNALIST: Okay. 

MINISTER CONROY: But are there any other questions about today's announcement? No, excellent. Very agile, very agile. I'd expect no less than the ADF and the former Air Marshal of the Air Force. 

Look, we've been very clear that the Chinese ships sailing through international waters is something that occurs regularly with ships of all navies. We regularly sail through the South China Sea. 

What matters is that people abide by international laws and international standards, and we've been very clear that the way the Chinese conducted their live firing exercise in terms of how much notice they gave was unreasonable. And we made it very clear that they should adhere to world's best practice. The Royal Australian Navy gives a minimum of 12 hours notice and often 24 to 48 hours notice, and we voiced our concerns to the Chinese Government that they need to give more notice and we've been very clear about that. 

But what you won't hear from us is the reaction from the Opposition who have attempted to politicise this and attempted to play politics with this. 

You've seen some ridiculous statements from Andrew Hastie, who quite frankly lied earlier in the week in terms of what capability we're providing to the Navy and the ADF as a whole. 

We're increasing the Defence budget by $50 billion. We're delivering four new frigates to the Royal Australian Navy by 2034. Under his plan only one would be delivered by 2023. And at the moment the Opposition's policy is to cut the Defence budget by $50 billion. That's their policy as announced by Angus Taylor in interviews. 

So questions have to be asked about what would happen if they were in power. When they cut the Defence budget by $50 billion would that make this country a safer place? The clear answer is no. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, the helicopter you're standing in front of is the pointy end of Australia's answer to submarines, antagonistic submarines offshore. What does the Chinese flotilla that's just seemingly circumnavigating our country tell us about the need for these helicopters? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well we've been very clear that we live in a period of greatest strategic uncertainty since 1945. We're seeing a regional arms race. That means that it's incredibly important that the ADF have the equipment it needs to defend Australia. 

The helicopter that we're standing in front of is the most advanced sub hunting helicopter in the world. It has the ability to detect, deter and ultimately destroy submarines, and that's why we're equip be the Royal Australian Navy with another 13 of these. And that's important. 

That's part of our broader plan to increase the capabilities of the Australian Defence Force. That's why we're increasing the Defence budget by $50 billion. That's why we're delivering a Navy that will be more than double the size of the plan we inherited from the Coalition Government. 

As I said, we're more than doubling the Navy, we're delivering four frigates by 2034 while the previous Government's plan was one, and that's why I'm incredibly concerned that the Opposition's plan is to cut the Defence budget by $50 billion. That will make this country less safe and it demonstrates the hypocrisy of the Opposition that are happy to politicise events, they're happy to ramp up rhetoric, they're happy to try and scare Australians, but their actions never match their rhetoric and they continue to under invest in Defence when they were in government. 

JOURNALIST: On that issue, what can you say about the possibility that a nuclear submarine might be accompanying that flotilla? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well I'd refer you to the comms of the Chief of the Defence Force earlier this week. I don't have anything to add to that. But what I can say to you is that task force, that Chinese flotilla, was the subject of the highest level of surveillance that you've ever seen from the Australian Defence Force for a cruise in international waters near Australia. 

And this is another thing that really annoys me about the Opposition, they're happy to ramp up the rhetoric. When a similar Chinese sailing near Australian waters in 2022 off the West Coast of WA, and the last Government subjected that cruise to nowhere near the level of surveillance that we have had with this current flotilla. We've deployed Royal Australian Navy assets, frigates, we've had P‑8 maritime patrol aircraft also surveilling those flotilla. 

We're very comfortable with the level of surveillance that we have provided. As I said, it's been unprecedented, and we're really committed to re‑equipping the Australian defence force to meet any needs into the future. 

JOURNALIST: Is it a concern that Donald Trump didn't appear to know what AUKUS was when he was asked about it today in the Oval Office? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well I couldn't characterise what occurred today like that. What I can say to you is that Prime Minister Albanese's had many constructive conversations with President Trump, and AUKUS has been the subject of many of them. 

What can I say to you is that Penny Wong and Richard Marles have engaged with their counterparts on AUKUS and you just have to look at the testimony from Secretary of State Marco Rubio in his confirmation hearing where he talked about AUKUS as being the gold standard for agreements between the United States and other countries. 

Richard Marles was there very recently where we announced the hand over of the first $500 million investment to obtain the Virginia submarines. 

So the United States is very committed to AUKUS and I'm very confident that will continue. 

JOURNALIST: Is Australia contributing to a peace keeping force in Ukraine given the [indistinct]? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well I'm not going to get into hypotheticals at this stage. We'll see what comes out of those discussions that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is engaged in. 

But if I can go back to a couple of principles. One, our position, the position of the Australian Government, is that we support the conflict in Ukraine to end on the terms that the Ukrainian Government want it to end. It needs to end on their terms, and we stand in stock support of their resistance to Vladimir Putin's illegal, immoral and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. 

That's why we've been privileged to be the biggest non‑NATO contribute of military assistance to their valiant struggle. I was at the NATO headquarters late last year and had the privilege of announcing our gifting of our Abrams tank fleet to support their struggle. 

So we support Ukraine, we stand by Ukraine. But I'm not going to get into hypotheticals at this stage.

JOURNALIST: Minister, perhaps one more if I can. 

SPEAKER: Last question, guys. 

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]. 

SPEAKER: Tim, do you want to repeat the ‑‑ 

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]. 

SPEAKER: Tim, can you repeat it? 

JOURNALIST: Have another go? 

SPEAKER: Yes, the helicopter. Have another go. 

JOURNALIST: The election is close; this electorate is hyper‑marginal. How much does this event over the fact that you've got a hell of a political fight in coming weeks right here? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well let me say a couple of things. The people of the South Coast of Gilmore have no stronger advocate than Fiona Phillips. Someone who was born and raised here, who has worked at HMAS Albatross, who comes from a dairy farming family, I want to say, that's correct. You can't be more of this area that Fiona Phillips. As I said, every week she's banging the table in Canberra fighting for her region. 

This contract was awarded to Sikorsky Australia because they've got an incredibly skilled workforce that is more than capable of servicing and maintaining these aircraft. But it's also a testament to the advocacy of Fiona Phillips and her fighting for her region. 

And that stands in stark contrast to Andrew Constance, who quite frankly made a goose of himself this week. Only a couple of years ago he was standing with Matt Kean saying he is pro‑renewables, he's pro taking action on climate change, he acknowledged that climate change was one of the factors that drove the horrible bushfires of the Black Summer. And then this week he was saying that Australia should step away from taking action on climate change. He was backing Peter Dutton's nuclear fantasy that would increase power prices by $1,200 and delay action on climate change. 

Andrew Constance is a weather vane. He'll say whatever he thinks the people listening to him want to hear, and I'm very confident the people of Gilmore don't want that from their representative. They want someone who gets up every day and fights for their region, who's constant in their values, who's constant in their advocacy and that's Fiona Phillips. 

Thank you.

ENDS