DAVID FEENEY MP
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE CENTENARY OF ANZAC
SHADOW MINISTER FOR JUSTICE
MEMBER FOR BATMAN
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
FORGACS SHIPYARD, NEWCASTLE
WEDNESAY, 9 JULY 2014
DAVID FEENEY, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR DEFENCE: Well thank
you very much everyone for coming along. I am delighted to be here at Forgacs with
Sharon Claydon, the Member for Newcastle. We have just had a meeting with the
management here at Forgacs, and obviously what prompted our visit today was the
news in recent days that some 100 jobs are going to disappear from this very
important place. By the end of next week there will be some 650 rather than 750
people working here at Forgacs, and we can expect to see that number steadily
decline over the years. This is obviously an avoidable tragedy; it’s a tragedy for
these workers because these jobs are disappearing when they didn’t ever need to
disappear.
What we have got here is a failure of public policy. There is a ship building program
in this country, which has been set out now for many years by successive
governments. But we now have with the Abbott Government’s decision to build ships
overseas, and without providing any certainty to the future or sustainability of
existing shipbuilding and we now have what’s called the valley of death. The valley
of death where there is a gap in our shipbuilding program, there is no work for our
shipyards, and as a result these jobs are disappearing when they didn’t need to.
You will be aware of course that in recent days the Abbott Government announced
that two navy logistics ships will be built overseas. This is a very heavy blow to our
shipbuilding industry, it’s a heavy blow because not only does that announcement
mean those ships will be built overseas, but in fact Australian shipyards have been
specifically excluded from that work. The Minister for Defence has said that they are
excluded from that work because Australian shipyards do not have the efficiencies
and do not have the capability to do that work and that is simply false.
I put it to you that in fact we have seen over the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD)
Project that these shipyards become increasingly efficient, as was anticipated when
the work was originally awarded to these shipyards. We now see these shipyards
operating twice as efficiently in the construction of the third Destroyer, as they were
at the first. We also know that these shipyards do indeed have the capability to build
those Navy logistics ships, so the exclusion of these shipyards from that work, is
nothing more than a bloody minded decision by the Abbott Government that is
costing us jobs right now and today.
In order to meet this challenge, and in order to contest this Government, that is
making shattering decisions about our shipbuilding industry, without any substance
and on the basis of a report, the Winter Review, which remains secret, the Senate
has now acted. The Senate Economics Committee has resolved that there will be an
inquiry into shipbuilding in this country. Two important features of that inquiry, the
first is that by the 27th of August that inquiry will need to report back to the
Parliament about the decisions made by the Abbott Government around the Navy
logistics ships. Answering the question why are they to be built overseas and why
are Australian shipyards specifically excluded for tendering for that work, and how is
it that the Government made those decisions on the basis of a report that remain
secret and are unable to explain to the Australian people why these jobs are
disappearing? Then a longer review by that same committee about the state of the
Australian shipbuilding industry and what needs to be done.
If we do not take decisive action and if we do not call the Government to account on
these questions, we are going to see the shipbuilding industry in this country go the
same way as the automotive industry and that is not going to happen without Labor
fighting the argument. We have shipyards here in Forgacs, we have BAE in
Williamstown and ASC in Adelaide, we have thousands of jobs and thousands of
families all set and ready to do a task that we know the country needs. There is a
shipbuilding task to be done in Future Frigate and Future Submarines and how does
it make sense for the Government to disperse this workforce and shatter these
shipyards before that job has started?
JOURNALIST: Do you feel as though this decision is the beginning of the end of
shipbuilding industry in Australia?
FEENEY: I think that’s a very real anxiety that we are all sharing. Yes, because I
guess when the AWD Project was first launched, we knew and it was a bipartisan
decision, that taxpayers would pay a premium to get the shipbuilding industry to a
quality and to a standard that it was then ready to build world class ships. We have
got that industry to that standard now, we have paid the premium and they are
ready to do the job, this is exactly the wrong moment to let that investment fall
away. That seems to be what the Government is determined to do.
JOURNALIST: When Labor was in Government they cut Defence spending by $30
billion. What do you have to say about that?
FEENEY: Well I contest the numbers. We were the very first Government in this
country’s history to budget more than $100 billion over the forward estimates for
Defence. In comparison to the neglect of the previous Government, we in fact
invested in Defence very seriously. The number you are talking about is the
slowdown in that investment after the Global Financial Crisis, so you’re talking about
money that was not cut from Defence but not spent. You are using an actuary figure
used by the Coalition which is a blinder. What we now have amazingly is a
Government that is saying they are keeping Defence spending levels at the same
level as Labor did, and Labor planned to do. But by virtue of the fact that they
haven’t cut the budget from Labor’s level they have done Defence a favour. So we
are spending the same amount in Defence today under the Coalition Government
that we were spending and planned to spend in Labor. The Coalition are trying to
say that’s a wondrous achievement because it hasn’t been cut. We say that’s a total
furphy and that in fact the Defence Capability Plan that is being developed at the
moment is a Labor plan and we are watching Defence spending very carefully.
JOURNALIST: The management here have said the numbers of staff will wind
down over time; the AWD Program I believe is due for completion quite soon. Is
there any indication that more job losses will come by the end of the year, or in the
near future?
FEENEY: Well yes, I think the industry is being very frank with us in saying if they
don’t have more work in the next two years and potentially even sooner than that
hundreds of jobs are going to disappear. This is a workforce behind us that are
working on the AWD and on current schedules that’s it, the job is done. With the
Government now having given those sea logistics ships to either Korea or Spain and
creating jobs in Spanish and Korean shipyards, these guys behind us are going to be
without work. That is a very real threat and precisely what we think is an avoidable
catastrophe.
JOURNALIST: Just touching back to the previous question, are you prepared to say
that the previous Labor Government didn’t contribute to the current climate of
shipbuilding in Australia?
FEENEY: No I think we contributed decisively. The AWD Project, the LHD Project
and doubling the investment and sustainment of the Collins Class Submarine from
$247 million to $500 million a year. We contributed to building a very healthy and
capable industry. We contributed to making sure that we were building and fitting
out the largest warships this country has ever operated. You will note that the
Minister for Defence, after he came into the job, had a road to Damascus experience
and said goodness me the Collins Class Submarines are very capable and goodness
me we are getting very good ready days out of these submarines, after having
bagged them for years.
Well that didn’t just happen because the day after he came into office he changed
his view; it was because over 4 years Labor doubled the investment into the
sustainment of those boats. That happened with Australian workers at ASC in
Adelaide. So whether you are talking about workers behind us working on
Destroyers or workers in Melbourne building Landing Helicopter Docks, now the
largest ships ever operated by the Royal Australian Navy, or whether you’re talking
about our Submarines. Labor made a very significant investment in our shipyards
and we have a world class workforce to show for it.
JOURNALIST: What I guess I was referring to is the current decline in the
shipbuilding industry. Do you think it would be unfair to say it’s all happened within
the last 10 months?
FEENEY: No. That’s precisely what has happened and let me explain why. We went
to the last election with a plan to bridge the valley of death in our shipbuilding
industry by having those two navy logistics ships being built in Australia. So we had
a very specific plan put to the Australian people in the last election. Let’s build those
ships and let’s build them in Australia. And we made that commitment knowing full
well that that promise needed to be implemented very quickly. So workers at
shipyards like the ones behind me would have that work in time. We obviously lost
the election, that is not news, but what is news is that for some 10 months after the
election the Abbott Government have done precisely nothing and so for months and
months we have waited for a decision from Government and we did not get one
until recent days when they suddenly announced they were committed to supporting
jobs in Spain and in Korea but not here in Australia. We have now seen after nine
months of indecision and silence a decision that shatters this industry and leaves
them wondering if they have a future, and for the Labor Party our anxiety is that we
are going to see this very important industry go the same way as the automotive
industry. We have a Government who simply has not made the decisions to support
it and should have made that decision many months ago.
JOURNALIST: A lack of certainty with contracts has been criticized by unions within
the industry. What do you think needs to change in this situation to provide more
certainty to the industry?
FEENEY: I guess what we know from the Defence requirements of Australia,
whether we talk Future Submarine or Future Frigate, there is a lot of shipbuilding
that needs to happen and that shipbuilding, large and small, needs to be organised
in a rolling build so that these shipyards are constantly busy. Rather than working in
surges and suddenly finding themselves without work, the work needs to be given to
them and organised in such a way that is a continuous build. That will keep this
workforce continuously busy and that keeps this industry at peak efficiency and
that’s really what we have spent the last 3 years achieving with the Air Warfare
Destroyer Project, getting the industry to that standard so they are now ready to
complete work at a world class standard.
That’s why having this industry abandoned in this very moment is such an
extraordinary waste because taxpayers have spent literally a billion dollars building a
world class industry which is now going to be allowed to fail. Labor believes that if
those Navy logistics ships were being in Australia and if the Future Frigate and the
Future Submarine Projects are built in Australia and then there are smaller projects
like the replacement for the Armidale Patrol Boats, those projects put together and
organised rationally will keep Australian shipyards busy, effective and operating at a
world class standard. By having these lumps and sudden droughts of work this
workforce will disperse and in four or eight years’ time there will be a Government
that has missed the opportunity to reassemble it and missed the opportunity to build
the next generation of warships in Australia. Thank you for your time.
ENDS