Mixed job news from defence plan
The nation’s long term defence blueprint has been unveiled and leaves South Australia as being a winner and a loser.
A fourth air warfare defence contract has been scrapped, but 12 new submarines are now in the pipeline.
The first Collins Class submarine has been taken out of the water for major maintenance at ASC’s Osbourne facility and will provide the template for 12 new submarines to be locally made.
And they could also be designed locally.
“I think we are ready to take the next evolution into the future submarine,” Paul Gay from ASC said.
Projects of that scale take years, even decades to complete, and ASC said the new contracts would secure the future for workers, and even their children.
Defence Industries Minister Jack Snelling has big raps on the project.
“This is larger than the Snowy Mountain Scheme as a nation building project,” he said.
But the new defence white paper has ruled out construction of a fourth air warfare destroyer that would have been built nearby at Techport.
Instead, building contracts for smaller supply ships and patrol boats may be up for grabs.
The South Australian Opposition fears that with so much downtime between projects, skilled workers may be forced to move on.
Most of the 14 American joint strike fighters on order are running over budget and two years behind schedule, so our new jet fighter fleet will feature hornet growlers instead.
Australia’s total defence bill will be $100 billion over four years.
