Scott Morrison has promised 1000 new jobs in defence industry

Scott Morrison is visiting Adelaide on Wednesday to announce a $50m research partnership with Adelaide University, and a push to get women into defence industries.

A thousand new highly-skilled jobs will be created in South Australia’s defence industry as Scott Morrison unveils a $50m hi-tech research partnership with the University of Adelaide.

The investment, to be announced by the Prime Minister in Adelaide on Wednesday, will help the university launch an ambitious new research strategy with 52 local businesses.

Mr Morrison is also set to announce a huge expansion of a program to get more women into defence jobs, providing an extra 480 internships for engineering students under a $14.4m investment.

With the $50m investment, the University of Adelaide is just the second Australian university to receive funding under the federal government’s “Trailblazer” program.

“Our national economic plan is supercharging Australia’s research and development, creating more jobs and helping build a stronger economy for a stronger future,” Mr Morrison said.

“We are investing $270bn in building our sovereign defence capability, creating jobs right around the country, and through our Trailblazer program we will now back in Australia’s brightest and best to develop new defence industry technology and products.”

Scott Morrison will visit Adelaide on Wednesday to announce funding for defence research. Picture: Jason Edwards

The University of Adelaide will team up with the University of NSW and 52 business partners, including 35 small firms, to develop hi-tech defence products.

It is expected to create 1000 direct jobs over the next four years and help develop 100 new defence products.

Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert said the University of Adelaide and its “industry partners” had promised $188m in co-investments.

“The investment of industry partners, and especially by the 35 small businesses, shows that our homegrown defence firms are hungry to innovate and to help secure Australia in the increasingly uncertain Indo-Pacific strategic environment,” Mr Robert said.

He said it would ensure Australia’s defence forces would have access to “global cutting-edge” technology, including quantum materials, hypersonics and robotics.

Masooma Alizada is an aeronautical engineering student doing an internship at Airspeed at Mawson Lakes. Picture: Matt Turner.

The extra $14.4m to get more women into defence jobs will bolster the Defence Industry Internship Program, bringing the total number of places to 770 by 2025-26.

The federal government has set a target of at least 40 per cent female participation in the program.

“We are determined to break down the barriers that stop girls and women studying engineering and other STEM subjects and help them take advantage of the future jobs boom that our defence investment is creating,” Mr Morrison said.

Almost half of the interns in 2020-21 were offered ongoing employment with their host companies.

Aeronautical engineering student Masooma Alizada started an internship at Mawson Lakes-based defence company Airspeed last December.

“The internship program was a great experience that allowed me to gain real-world engineering knowledge,” Ms Alizada said.

“Airspeed helped me develop new technical skills, which allowed me to design and build a real-life project in a professional environment.”

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