Press Conference, Regency Park Adelaide
MEMBER FOR ADELAIDE, STEVE GEORGANAS: Good morning and welcome to the federal seat of Adelaide. It's a great pleasure here today to have with us the Acting Prime Minister, Richard Marles. We also have accompanying ministers, state ministers. We've got Stephen Mullighan, Blair Boyer, and of course, with us as well is Stephen Mullighan, Blair Boyer and Andrew Giles as well. Look thank you for coming out. We've got some exciting news; a couple of weeks ago, we saw the Prime Minister at Adelaide announcing free university TAFE places etcetera. We're going to hear more today. It is exciting news, especially for South Australia, especially for younger people, students and people looking for skills for the future, and also for our defence build. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce the Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles.
ACTING PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: Well, thanks, Steve. And it's a real pleasure to be here with Steve Georganas, who's our wonderful Member for Adelaide. Two weeks ago, I was here with the Prime Minister, as the Prime Minister announced that fee-free TAFE would be an enduring feature of Australia's education system, with 100,000
Fee-free TAFE places each and every year from 2027. And this is really important in terms of meeting the skills challenge around our nation, but particularly the skills challenge here in South Australia around building the workforce, which in turn, will construct our future submarines, our future frigates. This is one of the great challenges of building the industry here in South Australia but it's one of the great opportunities for South Australians to have high paid, long term jobs in naval construction. As part of this today, we are announcing a skills package which will see 275 entry level positions into the naval construction industry across two programs. The first will see a 12 month traineeship, which will enable people to have on the job training and end with a CERT III qualification. And the second is a full apprenticeship program in fabrication, mechanical and electrical qualifications over a four year period. This will be delivered by TAFE SA, in conjunction with PEER and we're really pleased to have representatives of both here today. For those students who will be doing this training, the bulk of them will be doing that right here at Regency Park. And this is, of course, one of the major campuses for TAFE SA, within the state. This is going to play a really important part in building the workforce that we need to build our future frigates and our future submarines, and it forms part of the South Australian defence industry workforce and employment action plan, which we developed between the Commonwealth Government and the South Australian government, which has now been in place for a year and has had so many activities underway. We've got something like 5,000 school age kids participating in the school age pathway. We've got 1,000 University places here in South Australia, specifically for skills required to build our future frigates and our future submarines. And of course, work is now underway in terms of establishing the skills and training academy at the Osborne Naval Shipyard, which will be so important as the linchpin of developing that workforce of the future.
Today, we're also making another announcement, and that is that we will be establishing a mobilization deed between ASC, BAE and the Commonwealth. This deed is really the enabler of the joint venture which will be established between ASC and BAE to build our future submarines. But in establishing this globalization deed, it really enables us to get on with things right now, to develop the workforce plans and grow the workforce that we need of the future, and to be doing that right now, to get going on the plans for the construction yard, which is where our future submarines will be built, and to enable us to purchase long lead items, which are being made right now for the future submarines that will be built here in South Australia. Both of these announcements are really important steps down the pathway of delivering our future nuclear powered submarine capability for our nation, and developing the production line, which will see the construction of those submarines right here in Adelaide. That production line will be the most sophisticated high tech production line in our country, in any context. It represents one of the great industrial endeavours in our nation's history, and it will make an enormous difference in terms of building Australia's defence capability in time, what we will see at the Naval Osborne shipyard is a shipyard where 6,000-7,000 people will be employed in building our future submarines, building our future frigates, and maintaining our existing Collins class submarines. And the announcements that we've made today go to the human dimension of that- it is one of the great challenges, but in turn, it's one of the great opportunities for young people in South Australia to acquire a well-paid long term job in building our nation's capability and our future.
MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING, ANDREW GILES: Thanks very much, Acting Prime Minister. I'm thrilled to be back at TAFE SA’s Regency Park campus today for a really important series of announcements that the Acting Prime Minister has just set out. And of course, what they make clear is that across all of our national priorities, including defence industry, there is a common theme, and that is the challenge of workforce and skills and training. This has been an absolute priority for the Albanese Government since we came into office. And we've been addressing these things in South Australia in a close partnership with the Malinauskas Government. We’ve seen enormous uptake across our initiatives through the National Skills Agreement, which are enabling us to meet our national challenges and give South Australians the skills they want so they can undertake the jobs we need, giving people, as the Acting Prime Minister just said, the opportunity to have good, secure jobs. The partnerships, of course, are between the governments, but they're broader than that, they involve industry, workers and the unions too, to ensure that everyone is benefiting from these great opportunities right here in South Australia. Again, they build on really solid foundations, fee-free TAFE as the Acting Prime Minister was mentioning just a minute ago, as in, has ensured 17,000 South Australians already have had the opportunity to gain skills they wanted. Just today, we've announced another 1,340 places, with Minister Boyer touching on that instance on construction, because we recognise right around the country, in all these areas of our national priorities, we need to help people get the skills that they want so they can do the jobs we need them to do, whether it's building submarines or building houses. And that's fundamentally why the Prime Minister committed an Albanese government to introduce legislation, which I had the privilege of doing in the last sitting work, to ensure that fee-free TAFE will become enduring. That we got 100,000 places each and every year to ensure that we can keep building the skills, so that we can keep building a nation.
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TREASURER, STEPHEN MULLIGHAN: Thank you very much, Minister. I can't tell you how pleased we are once again, to have the Acting Prime Minister, the Honourable Richard Marles here in South Australia, once again making substantial announcements which will help our state make sure we then meet the demand that is coming from the most transformational investments in our state's economy that we've had ever seen. No government has assisted this state more than the current Albanese Federal Labor Government in transforming our economy. It is extraordinary the amount of capital, but the amount of initiatives which are now being deployed in our state from the Commonwealth in order to help us not only deliver continuous naval shipbuilding at Osborne, only 10 kilometres or so away from where we're gathering today, but also to build nuclear-powered, conventionally-submarines for the defence of our nation into the future. This is a really important partnership between TAFE SA and PEER, of course, located in the most important state electorate in our state, in Royal Park. It's wonderful to have another partnership between the government training provider in TAFE and a group training provider in PEER, delivering transformational skills which will change the lives of young South Australians starting a career that will span decades, building these incredibly important platforms. So to the Acting Prime Minister and also to minister Giles from South Australia, we are incredibly grateful for this further investment in our state's economy. And these platforms, and delivering these platforms will transform the productivity, the capacity of our economy and the standard of living of South Australians into the future. This relationship between the Federal Labor government, and the state government, is so important for the benefit of our state. We're so grateful to see, once again, that the Acting Prime Minister is back here so frequently, rolling up his sleeves and helping us do the hard work and making sure we can deliver these platforms- we're very grateful. We're happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, can I ask about this joint venture between BAE, ASC and the Commonwealth- Has it taken longer than expected? And are there any competitive decisions between the Finance Department and your Defence Department about how that delay has been managed?
MARLES: It's not taken longer than expected. We were very clear that we wanted to manage the way in which the build would occur through the establishment of a joint venture with an Australian sovereign partner as part of that, which is ASC, which is, of course, owned by the Commonwealth Government. Now it is a more complicated legal structure. What we made clear and agreed with BAE at the outset in terms of developing this structure was that, given we're talking about a program which is going to be enduring, you know decade of a program that it is worth taking the time to get the structure right. But part of that was to make sure that we were able to keep moving ahead with the practical operational issues between now and when that structure is developed, which is why the mobilization deed we announced today is so important. Because, in essence, what it does is allows us to continue with the work, purchasing long lead items- for example, doing the things which need to be done right now, whilst giving us the time to put in place the enduring legal framework, which will be the joint venture, which really will put the Australian Government in an unprecedented place around the table in terms of how this program is managed over the decades to come.
JOURNALIST: Was there any concern around signing this agreement, considering, I guess, the uncertainty that a Trump presidency brings to the AUKUS agreement?
MARLES: No, not at all. I mean, well, firstly, this, the mobilization deed really is the enabler, what enables us to keep moving until the joint venture is put in place. A joint venture which is between BAE, ASC and that will in turn, contract with the Commonwealth to build our future submarines. So in that sense, the United States, in respect of this part of AUKUS is not a party to these agreements. I guess, more broadly, in terms of your question, we've said this repeatedly, that when you look at the actions of who have been part of the Trump team, who have been Republicans, Trump Republicans have been completely supportive of AUKUS. And that's not just in terms of word, although it is in terms of work, but it's also in terms of action. When you look at the way in which Trump Republicans voted, this time last year to support legislation through the United States Congress, which saw for example, the sale of the Virginia class submarines to Australia and they supported that. And you will see that key personnel who are being appointed by President elect Trump have been on the record as very supportive of AUKUS. So we've been completely confident about what a Trump administration would look like, both in respect of the Alliance, but in also in respect of our key equities within the Alliance, AUKUS being first and foremost.
JOURNALIST: So should South Australians in particular be worried about a Trump Administration either scuttling or delaying nuclear-powered submarine construction in Adelaide?
MARLES: No. That's a really clear answer to that question. I think, as I just said, if you look at where President Trump and his team have been in respect of the question of AUKUS, there has been support. I think what South Australians can look forward to is being part of one of the most exciting nation building activities in our country's history. I mean, this is transforming Australia's military capability, and therefore the nation's fundamental capability but as an industrial undertaking, this rivals Snowy Hydro, this is really one of the great nation changing endeavours that we will see in our history, and the epicentre of that is right here in Adelaide. It is going to be an incredibly exciting opportunity for the people of Adelaide, particularly the young people of Adelaide. There's a challenge in that, which is the training challenge. We're really clear about that, so we're not sanguine about the training challenge here at all, which is exactly why we're making announcements such as we did two weeks ago, and such as we have today. But with that challenge comes such a wonderful opportunity for young people in this state to acquire the skills which will enable them to do high paying, high tech jobs in the future.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask other topic? Should Wayne Swan be standing down as ALP President while ASIC prosecutes CBUS?
MARLES: I mean, I'm not going to make comment on that. Other than to say this, that Wayne Swan has been a fantastic servant of our party as the as the president of our party, over a long time now. I think all of us are admiring of Wayne in the sense that having had an incredible career in Parliament, having been the treasurer of our country for the better part of six years, Wayne really has given back after his parliamentary service to the party which put him there and served as our party president. It's a pretty thankless task, to be honest, but he has done an incredible job, and we are fundamentally grateful.
JOURNALIST: And does Jim Chalmers have any questions to answer over the CBUS scandal?
MARLES: No.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask, turning slightly back to the submarines, can we ask for an update on the consequences of the recent fire at the BAE shipyard in the UK?
MARLES: I am briefed that there are no consequences in terms of the progress of the preparation, both in terms of long lead items for SSN-AUKUS, which will be constructed here, but also in terms of the work that we are doing with the BAE to develop or to construct the shipyard here which is where the submarine will be built. Obviously, was an unfortunate incident, but it doesn't really have any bearing on the progress of that part of AUKUS, which is the construction of our submarines.
JOURNALIST: Are you satisfied with, for a lack of a better term sea worthiness, of the Collins class submarine fleet and its ability to cover the gap until nuclear-powered submarines around?
MARLES: I am. It's a reasonable question, but I am, and it's important to make a couple of comments about that. Collins is a formidable capability, and Collins has served our nation really well. Collins is one of the most capable diesel electric submarines, long range diesel electric submarines in the world. If it's not the most capable and, on this day, represents the most significant platform within the defence force in terms of being able to project Australia's capability, more than any other platform that we operate today. Clearly, Collins is aging, by virtue of what we saw under the former government, where they were in and out of the submarine deal with Japan, and then in and out of submarine deal with France. We really did have a lost decade in terms of developing our successful submarine capability, and when we came to office in 2022 we really faced a ten year capability gap, which we have managed to close both by bringing forward the acquisition of Virginia class submarines to the early 2030s but also extending the life of the Collins class submarines. Now we're confident we can do that, but it is an aging platform, and it will require more maintenance in terms of doing that, and there'll be challenges associated with it. But having said that, we're confident that we can meet those challenges, and that really, the problem that we were trying to solve was to ensure that from the moment that we came to office through when the first SSN-AUKUS rolls off the production line here in Adelaide in the early 2040s we have a growing submarine capability each and every year, and we're confident that that's what we'll be able to do.
JOURNALIST: Given projects like AUKUS are prone to timeline blowouts and quite significant ones, what's the kind of deadline for the Collins class when you think they'll be actually need to go out of commission?
MARLES: We've articulated all of that in terms of the optimal pathway that we announced in March of last year. And again, in articulating it what we have sought to do is to see an increasing submarine capability for our nation from this moment through until when we are operating a fleet that is fully nuclear-powered. The Collins class submarines will still have many years to run, decades plus in the sense of more than ten years. The Collins will run through the 2030s or some of the Collins will run through the 2030 so I should say. So sustaining Collins will continue to be, the life of type extension of Collins, will continue to be a very important part of work that is undertaken here in Adelaide and Collins class submarines will continue to play a really critical part of our submarine capability for a long time to come.
JOURNALIST: Do you have full confidence in Kevin Rudd's long term tenure as Australia's Ambassador to the US, given his previous comments about President Trump?
MARLES: Yes, I do. And let me say this about Kevin; that Kevin as our Ambassador, is playing a really important role in building relationships across the political spectrum in the United States, but very much, including those in the Republican Party and those who will form part of the next Trump Administration. Kevin was there at the Republican National Convention earlier this year. He's been very important for me and for others in our government to meet those who potentially may play a part in a future Trump Administration. You can see in terms of the relationships that he has across the Congress, Democrats, Republicans, Trump Republicans alike, and success he's had in seeing the legislation I referred to earlier pass the United States Congress, that Kevin has built a wide network of people throughout America's political spectrum. I'm really confident that in doing that Kevin will be able to represent our country very ably when the next Trump Administration is sworn in.
JOURNALIST: Should we allow the incoming President to dictate who sits in that role?
MARLES: I mean, there are diplomatic forums around how diplomatic representation occurs around the world. All I would say is that the Kevin Rudd has played a really important role as our Ambassador. Now I have every confidence that he will be able to perform that role ably when the next Trump Administration is sworn in.