Election 2018: Opposition Leader Steven Marshall pledges workforce plan for $90bn naval industry jobs

OPPOSITION Leader Steven Marshall has pledged a “comprehensive defence workforce plan” to ensure SA gets as many jobs as possible from the $90 billion ship and submarine build.

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OPPOSITION Leader Steven Marshall has pledged a “comprehensive defence workforce plan” to ensure SA gets as many jobs as possible from the $90 billion ship and submarine build.

Mr Marshall said a skills shortage in SA threatened to turn into an economy-wide crisis as the shipbuilding plan ramped up from this year, due to State Government neglect.

Mr Marshall said he would audit the existing skills base in local industry.

Liberal Leader Steven Marshall has pledged a “comprehensive defence workforce plan” to ensure SA gets as many jobs as possible from the $90 billion ship and submarine build.

“The size and specialist qualifications of the shipbuilding workforce in South Australia needs to develop significantly to meet the requirements of the Federal Government’s Naval Shipbuilding Plan and reap the substantial rewards on offer for our state,” he said.

Mr Marshall said the Government needed to adopt a “proactive role in developing a local naval shipbuilding workforce to ensure South Australian skilled workers can meet the future demands of the defence industry”.

The plan would ensure SA capitalised on this “once in a generation opportunity in naval shipbuilding”. He said the State Government had more than halved apprenticeship numbers over the past five years and was “content to sit on their hands and watch a skills shortage develop”.