Premier Peter Malinauskas urges ‘thoughtful discussion’ about immigration at Canberra’s Defending Australia summit

The SA Premier has declared at the Defending Australia summit that the SA based AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project would need “an incredible number of skilled workers”.

The future defence of Australia urgently needs hundreds of thousands more homes to allow a “healthy influx of skilled migrants” to backfill workforce shortages, says Premier Peter Malinauskas.

Delivering the keynote address at Canberra’s Defending Australia summit, Mr Malinauskas declared Australia did not have “an immigration problem” but “a housing supply problem”.

He urged immediate government action to address the housing shortage, saying the Adelaide-based AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project would need “an incredible number of skilled workers”.

Premier Peter Malinauskas during the Defending Australia Conference. Picture: Martin Ollman

Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas delivers the keynote address at the Defending Australia Conference at Old Parliament House in Canberra . Picture: Martin Ollman

“These plumbers, electricians, engineers and other skilled workers would be attracted from other Australian industries.

“So, my question is this: without a healthy influx of skilled migrants, who is going to backfill those jobs? Jobs which overlap significantly with those required by the mighty national construction effort needed to address our housing crisis,” Mr Malinauskas said.

In another Defending Australia address, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles revealed design partners for Adelaide’s new Nuclear-Powered Submarine Construction Yard, in the city’s northwest.

The design partners are Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) and an AECOM and Aurecon Joint Venture.

Minister Stephen Mullighan said AUKUS would involve numerous young Australians travelling to the US and UK to learn new skills. Picture: Martin Ollman

KBR will design the section of the shipyard that will be used for steel processing and fabrication facilities, while the joint venture will design the rest of the site – for outfitting, consolidating and commissioning the AUKUS submarines.

Mr Malinauskas urged “thoughtful discussion and cool-headed policy” about immigration, indirectly referring to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s budget reply vow to slash Australia’s permanent migration program to 140,000 per year. The federal government’s plans for a migrant intake of 1.67m in the next five years was “bigger than Adelaide”, Mr Dutton said on May 20, which was forcing Australians out of homes.

The nuclear shipyard project, at the existing Osborne Naval Shipyard site, is expected to create up to 4000 jobs at the peak of construction.

Mr Malinauskas hailed the shipyard designers’ appointment as a significant milestone. Picture: Martin Ollman

Mr Malinauskas hailed the shipyard designers’ appointment as a significant milestone, saying this would become a workplace for thousands and “deliver a step change in the complexity of our economy”.

“AUKUS is not a theoretical project that will take years to start. The work is already underway,” he said.

SA was working closely with the federal government on designing a Skills and Training Academy at Osborne, for which key milestones would be met soon.

BAE Systems Australia chief executive officer Ben Hudson, whose firm will be the joint builder of the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines, said his firm’s Hunter Class frigate project based at Osborne had created a high-tech shipyard and the foundations of a continuous naval shipbuilding industry.

“The digital shipyard is bringing a level of productivity and quality, the likes of which naval shipbuilding hasn’t seen globally and that’s happening at Osborne,” Peter Malinauskas said. Picture: Martin Ollman

“The digital shipyard is bringing a level of productivity and quality, the likes of which naval shipbuilding hasn’t seen globally and that’s happening at Osborne,” he said. “And I think it’s something we all should be proud of. We love to throw rocks at things in Australia and we’ve got to stop throwing rocks and start working on the challenges.”

KBR senior director, strategy and business development government solutions, APAC Fran Murphy said the defence industry had kept pace with technological developments across the world, offering extraordinary opportunities for young people.

“Our young people today have got the opportunity to be amazing software coders, cyber specialists that can work in artificial intelligence,” she said. “…So it’s attracting people because it is the world that those young people live in.”

Fran Murphy said the defence industry had kept pace with technological developments across the world, offering extraordinary opportunities for young people. Picture: Martin Ollman

SA Defence and Space Industries Minister Stephen Mullighan said AUKUS would involve numerous young Australians travelling to the US and UK to learn new skills.

“I think we will be at pains amongst the three countries to avoid trying to lure or poach workers. I think that would be corrosive of the very strong relationship that exists between the countries,” he said. “So really, it’s about using that knowledge and expertise and experience to train one another’s workforces, and that we see as being an absolutely essential part of work...’’