WA Premier escalates war of words with SA in battle for submarine maintenance jobs
Western Australia’s Premier Mark McGowan has talked up the amount of defence work in Adelaide – but claimed his state is “far more capable than SA” to take on extra submarine maintenance.
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Western Australia is “far more capable than SA”, its Premier Mark McGowan insists, as he pitches for his state to nab South Australia’s submarine maintenance work.
WA and SA are embroiled in a political fight over hundreds of submarine sustainment jobs as the Federal Government prepares to make a major decision on where they’ll go.
ASC currently does the Collins Class full-cycle dockings in SA but WA is ramping up its efforts to take over the work amid concerns SA needs to clear the decks for future submarine and warship projects.
While some believe up to 700 jobs will be lost if the work moves, others say everyone currently working on the full-cycle dockings will get a job on new projects if they don’t want to move.
Speaking at a Submarine Institute of Australia conference on Tuesday, Mr McGowan talked up the amount of work happening in South Australia as he pitched for his state to nab the submarine maintenance work.
It’s a “big load on their (SA’s) hands”, he said, while WA had “spare capacity” to take it on.
WA is “far more capable than SA, to be honest”, he said.
WA Defence Issues Minister Paul Papalia told the conference on Monday night that WA was a central player in defence and had a plan to do more.
“It’s not something we chose to do to create havoc and angst in SA,” he told the Perth crowd.
“We’re certainly not intent on stealing anyone’s jobs. WA needs to make a better contribution.
“We’re making the case. We’ll see what happens. The full-cycle docking thing will … be resolved before too long.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in Adelaide this week that he couldn’t guarantee a decision before Christmas.
Many in defence and in politics argue that as the Naval Shipbuilding Plan ramps up the problem will not be anyone losing their jobs, but not having enough people to fill the positions that will be created.
Federal Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price said Australia would need 15,000 workers but currently there were only 4000.
“So we need to do a lot more work. It’s going to take all of us to solve that problem,” she said.