South Australia’s biggest threat on defence shipbuilding jobs is ‘complacency’, industry groups warn
SOUTH Australia can’t afford to be complacent on defence jobs because the other states are circling, the peak industry group has warned.
SOUTH Australia can’t afford to be complacent on defence jobs because the other states are circling, the peak industry group and others have warned.
Thousands of jobs are set to flow from the Federal Government’s $90 billion naval shipbuilding investment, and Adelaide will be the centre of the Future Frigates and Future Submarine projects.
But that does not mean South Australians can assume they will get the jobs, Defence Teaming Centre chief executive officer Margot Forster said on Friday.
While SA was already “the Defence State”, just because we’ll be able to see the shipyard does not mean jobs will automatically come to us, she said.
“That is absolutely not the case,” she told an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia lunch.
She said DTC was working with defence companies to help them connect with the big contracts and understand their complexities and challenges.
Saab managing director Andy Keough – the immediate past chief of Defence SA – agreed, saying “complacency” was SA’s achilles heel.
“People think the work is naturally coming to us because we’re in SA and the work is in SA,” he said in reference to the companies competing for all the contracts.
“The postcodes will matter very little. What they’ll be looking for is the most competitive and capable partner at the right price.”
Mr Keough said just because the prime contracts were signed, with Naval Group for the submarines and BAE for the frigates, that did not mean SA should become complacent.
“We need to realise the competition continues and it won’t be over until they’ve signed the contracts,” he said.
BAE was announced as the winner of the $35 billion Future Frigates contract last week, which Mr Keough said was “another step along the road” for the defence industry.
“It gives great confidence to the industry that was used to seeing slippage around all the projects,” he said.
Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has predicted the shipbuilding work will create up to 25,000 direct and indirect jobs in SA alone.
All three panellists – Ms Forster, Mr Keough and Naval Group’s human resources general manager Rachel Botting – said one of the biggest difficulties would be getting a workforce with the right skills.
“We will be growing our workforce immensely … we don’t today have the full extent of what we need,” Ms Botting said.
She said Naval Group was using a “multi-faceted approach” to grow the pool of workers.
Mr Keough was optimistic about future workers, saying the message was “getting out there”.
“Kids out there are looking not for a job, but for a career – and you can get that in the defence industry,” he said.