Western Australia just doesn’t have the skills to take South Australia’s sub maintenance work, SA Premier claims
The Western Australia Government claims it’s a matter of national security that they get the jobs to maintain the Navy’s submarines. But SA’s Premier says Adelaide will remain the home of the Collins Class.
- Losing sub maintenance to WA would lose SA hundreds of millions
- The clash for submarine jobs – a deep dive
The fight for hundreds of defence jobs has escalated, with Premier Steven Marshall declaring Western Australia incapable of doing the work.
The WA State Government yesterday launched an aggressive new bid for Collins Class submarine sustainment work, saying it was a matter of national security that the 700 subs jobs go west.
ASC in WA already does lower-level maintenance while SA does the major overhauls, but WA wants to do all the servicing.
Premier Mark McGowan declared SA too risky because Osborne would be juggling other shipbuilding projects.
But Mr Marshall hit back, saying WA simply did not have SA’s expertise.
He said Adelaide was the home of submarines, although he conceded the state, like WA, would face skills shortages. But he said these could be overcome.
For years many have assumed that as the Osborne shipyard gets busy working on the 12 new Barracuda Class submarines (as well as the Hunter Class frigates), the job of looking after the ageing Collins Class submarines will fall to ASC’s operations in WA.
A review underway into the options is due by the end of the year. Concerns have been heightened, however, because both Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price are from WA that the pressure will be on for the 700 jobs to shift.
The former Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne, was from SA.
The WA Government on Monday released two reports they had commissioned that claimed leaving the work in SA was a risk because ASC doesn’t have the workforce or the space to carry out all the naval shipbuilding work.
It said in a release that moving the work to WA was in the national interest, would create more than 3000 jobs, contribute up to $8.4 billion to the economy, and would “de-risk” other shipbuilding programs.
Mr Marshall rubbished their claims, and said WA would not be able to properly carry out the work.
“SA is the home of the Collins Class submarine,” he said.
“There has always been maintenance work done in WA ... but full-cycle docking is very different.
“This is a major overhaul for a submarine. We have the expertise here in SA, they don’t have it in WA. Yes, they’re after our work but I’m absolutely convinced that this is the best place for the nation to base its full-cycle docking and that’s precisely what we’ll be promoting in Canberra.”
The Advertiser last week revealed almost 800 business would be affected and a further $400 million in economic activity lost each year if the work went to WA.