PM urges young Australians to embrace ‘honour’ of defence work

Easing visas and slashing red tape could be the key to closing the yawning gap that’s leaving Australia vulnerable, the PM says.

Red tape holding back overseas workers from gaining Australian visas will be slashed to accelerate the recruitment of a world leading defence workforce, as Anthony Albanese champions a call to arms for our brightest young minds to help protect the nation.

The Prime Minister has urged young Australians to respond to the growing challenge of plugging an expansive skills gap, declaring those who work in the defence industry deserve to be “honoured” for serving their country.

“When we think about defending Australia, we need to think about it in the broadest sense,” Mr Albanese told NewsCorp Australia in an exclusive interview.

“It is people in uniform who deserve to be honoured and respected, but it’s also people who are working in shipyards, working in technology, who are providing the capacity for Australian Defence who (also) need to be honoured going forward.”

WATCH LIVE FROM 3.30PM (ACDT): Defending Australia panel discussion in Adelaide with South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, following an address by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said those working in the defence industry should be honoured for serving their country. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Mr Albanese committed to cutting red tape that is slowing down the visa system amid a staggering backlog of about 750,000 applicants. He also promised to ramp up efforts to boost the permanent migration of highly skilled workers to Australia, rather than temporary recruitment.

Australia is facing an uphill battle to recruit more than 10,000 additional workers in the industry over the next 15 years as the country embarks on an ambitious defence procurement strategy, which involves building at least eight nuclear-powered submarines in Adelaide.

Universities and high schools will be tasked with overhauling strategies and curriculums to accelerate the currently sluggish participation in science, tech and maths subjects.

Establishing a steady pipeline of skilled workers is one of Australia’s greatest challenges ahead of the nuclear-powered submarine build and a slew of other projects, such as the construction of nine Hunter-class frigates.

Defence companies must lean on overseas migration to bolster workforce numbers, particularly for people with skills in nuclear engineering.

The federal government is considering establishing a special “AUKUS Visa”, allowing faster access to Australian working rights for skilled defence professionals in Britain and the US.

“We want to cut through some of the red tape – we are working through those details,” Mr Albanese said.

“We know that we need a bigger, highly technical and skilled workforce and we need to leverage the expertise which is there in the UK and the US in particular.”

Mr Albanese said there was already a range of visa categories permitting migration between Australia, US and the UK.

“But we want to prioritise permanent migration as well with visas and sponsorship through employers,” the Prime Minister said.

“We are undertaking a full review of Australia’s migration system, and part of what we want to do is move away from temporary migration and towards being able to attract people with the skills that Australia needs – and to permanently settle here.”

From Covid-induced isolation, Mr Albanese will address NewsCorp Australia’s ‘Defending Australia’ roundtable discussion at the Adelaide University on Friday – an event that will gather defence and education leaders to unearth solutions to the country’s skilled worker shortage.

Labor’s Defence Strategic Review, to be finalised early next year, will likely create several new defence projects, giving rise to even more hi-tech job opportunities.

Coining a new term, Defence Minister Richard Marles declared Australia would have a greater focus on “impactful projection” – hinting at new long-range missiles and hypersonics.

Skills will also be needed in cyber security and space – heralded as the new frontier of defence. A joint taskforce between the federal and SA state governments will develop a plan to ensure shipbuilding projects will have a healthy workforce to tap into.

Mr Albanese encouraged young Australians to take advantage of the looming boom in defence and space.

“Both those areas are exciting – they offer the opportunity to travel, they offer security and a role with purpose so that they can have fulfilling careers,” he said.

“(They) provide people with an opportunity … to feel as though they’re contributing to Australia’s national security and to get the fulfilment that comes from that.”

Mr Albanese said Australia had often failed to commercialise on the impressive science and innovation created within the country.

“What we haven’t been good at always is commercialising those opportunities, (but) what we’re seeing … is that South Australia will be at the forefront of not just innovation, but also commercialising and putting innovation and science into practice to make a difference for the country,” the Prime Minister said.

The PM’s speech

The security of our nation is the fundamental responsibility of every government and the first priority of every prime minister.

This solemn duty is unchanging – but the threats Australia faces and the planning we need to undertake to deal with them are constantly evolving.

Our Indo-Pacific region is now at the centre of strategic competition.

We live in a world where the threat of conflict is real and where the technological edge enjoyed by Australia and our allies is narrowing.

This adds up to a deteriorating strategic environment – one that will demand more of Australia, our people and our Defence force.

The government is committed to ensuring our military has the right capabilities to allow us to shape our region’s future ... and to strengthen our ability to work with regional partners in pursuit of stability, security and prosperity.

We are doing this as a matter of urgency.

In 1985, when Kim Beazley was defence minister, he commissioned Paul Dibb to do a review of our strategic circumstances and our response to those circumstances.

The resulting white paper laid the basis for an assumption about warning times that has held for over three decades: that any military threat to Australia would take at least 10 years to emerge.

The 2020 Defence Strategic Update upended that assumption and observed that we are now sitting within that 10-year threat window.

While we must do everything we can to ensure competition in our region does not become conflict, it is a possibility for which we need to be prepared.

That’s why our government has commissioned the Defence Strategic Review.

The review will ensure Australia is best-placed to respond to our changing – and increasingly challenging – strategic circumstances.

As a three-ocean nation dependent on seaborne international trade, Australia requires cutting-edge naval capabilities, the most important of which for our future will be nuclear-powered submarine capability.

Over an 18-month period, which will conclude in March 2023, Australia, the US, and the UK have been developing the optimal pathway for delivery of those nuclear-powered submarines.

This week we saw the first meeting of Defence Ministers from Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom take place.

That meeting reiterated that the nuclear-powered submarine pathway is crystallising, and we are on track to make an announcement early next year.

As part of that, we will ensure we are meeting the non-proliferation obligations we have to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The nuclear-powered submarine program and our broader naval shipbuilding enterprise will create thousands of jobs in Australia over the coming decades, from welding to advanced manufacturing, hi-tech design and engineering.

Fostering a sovereign shipbuilding and submarine workforce in Australia is critical to the defence of our nation.

South Australia has a proud history in this field – and a vital role to play in the decades ahead.

That is why the commonwealth government has partnered with the South Australian government on the Defence Industry and Skills Taskforce.

The taskforce will ensure that we have the right policies in place to deliver the workforce we need for Defence.

Defence has already commenced training initiatives to support specialist skills, including STEM Cadetships, and Defence Masters Sponsorships with ANU and UNSW in nuclear science and nuclear engineering.

Our submarine program is just one of the many initiatives you are discussing here today – initiatives that will prompt significant growth in defence jobs over the coming decades.

To meet demand, it is essential that we also grow our aviation, communications, cyber, health, intelligence, and engineering workforces.

Not only do we need to build this pool of skilled workers, we need to ensure that we retain them.

Part of that means making it easier for people to easily transition between locations and careers, including the military, the Australian public service, academia and industry.

We also need long-term planning to ensure we are nurturing and developing the skills and experience required for defence jobs over time.

So many of the jobs and skills our defence industry will need require a STEM qualification, which often involves years of training.

That’s why we are making it a priority to ensure all Australian students have an opportunity to engage in STEM, as early as primary school.

To help them discover a passion for science or engineering, and pursue it as a career.

We will support our next generation of scientists and engineers through the Defence Industry Internship Program.

It connects 3rd and 4th year engineering students with defence industry small to medium enterprises, and sponsors the industry placement components of their studies.

Of course, TAFE and vocational education play a crucial role as well.

As I announced during our Jobs and Skills Summit in September, the government is partnering with states and territories to deliver fee-free TAFE places.

In South Australia, we’ve worked with the state government to create 12,500 fee-free TAFE places in priority areas in 2023 alone.

Over the next year, we’ll collaborate with all states and territories on funding and reform, and will negotiate a long-term National Skills Agreement, based on a set of guiding principles agreed by the national cabinet.

This includes providing critical and emerging industries at a national, state and local level with the skilled workers they need.

Our government’s newly established Jobs and Skills Australia will play a central role in this, providing independent, expert advice on current and emerging workforce demands and patterns.

Our approach to skills and training mirrors our approach across the government: tackling the challenges of today – and planning for the opportunities of tomorrow.

Our national security underpins the better future we are building. It’s up to us to defend it, to strengthen it and to invest in it with our greatest resource: the skills, smarts and resolve of our people.

Anthony Albanese, PM

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