SA Premier Peter Malinauskas seizes on naval shipbuilding, Northern Water projects to spruik jobs | Paul Starick

Two landmark projects creating thousands of jobs hit critical milestones this week and the Premier wants to capitalise, writes Paul Starick.

Premier Peter Malinauskas is flicking the switch to the economy as he seeks to leverage a jobs bonanza in naval shipbuilding and copper mining.

Two landmark projects worth at least 6700 direct jobs hit critical milestones in the past week.

Responding to a naval surface fleet review, Defence Minister Richard Marles promised – and partially funded – a continuous shipbuilding program at Osborne Naval Shipyard.

Three of nine ships were axed from the Hunter-class frigate project and switched for replacements for the three Adelaide-built air warfare destroyers. The Hunter project will support 2500 jobs at its peak.

Premier Peter Malinauskas and BAE Systems Australia managing director maritime Craig Lockhart at Osborne Naval Shipyard on Wednesday, responding to naval surface fleet changes. Picture: Dean Martin

Then, just two days later, Mr Malinauskas inked a deal with resources companies – spearheaded by BHP – to progress plans for a 260 megalitre-a-day desalination plant on Eyre Peninsula, pumping water through a 600km pipeline to the north.

The $5bn-plus plant is forecast to create 4200 jobs, particularly through providing a reliable water supply essential to expand BHP’s copper production and kickstart private sector hydrogen and green iron operations.

Anna Wiley, BHP vice president of planning and technical for minerals Australia, shakes hands with Premier Peter Malinauskas at a press conference to announce a financial commitment to progress plans for Northern Water. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

The project is a linchpin of Mr Malinauskas’s bid to make South Australia a global green energy superpower, which he will tout during a three-day Upper Spencer Gulf economic summit, starting on Sunday.

This will include public forums in Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie but, essentially, it is taking cameras to BHP’s copper operations for a sales pitch to voters about the economic benefits of the desal plant.

BHP believes SA can become one of the world’s biggest copper miners, producing as much as $6bn annually to satisfy surging global demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy. But it needs water to double the size of its copper smelter, beneficiating ore from Olympic Dam and a potential Oak Dam expansion.

Mr Malinauskas told The Advertiser his economic summit would put meat on the bones of the opportunity from the defence and green economy sectors.

“The two big global challenges of our age are geopolitical insecurity in our region ... and the global race to decarbonise. Both global challenges are actually SA’s opportunity,” he said.

Former premier Steven Marshall, now retired from politics, will be looking on somewhat askance. His government generated the Northern Water project, as Opposition Leader David Speirs was quick to remind anyone who would listen.

“We welcome Peter Malinauskas’s decision to carry the baton and push ahead with the Liberal Party and former premier Steven Marshall’s initiative to deliver the Northern Water Project on the Eyre Peninsula,” he said on Thursday.

Then-premier Steven Marshall with BHP chief of geoscience Laura Tyler during a tour of the Olympic Dam mine site in Roxby Downs in 2019. Picture: AAP/David Mariuz

Both Mr Marshall and Mr Malinauskas had the unexpected windfall of the $368bn AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project, centred on Adelaide.

Initially, Mr Malinauskas complained while in opposition that the French contract to build conventionally powered submarines had been scrapped.

But, like Mr Marshall, he soon realised the potential economic benefits of a security and technology-sharing pact with the world’s biggest economy.

This was evidenced by him swiftly jetting off to tour the UK’s nuclear submarine yard shortly after the AUKUS plan was unveiled last March at a US naval base in San Diego.

State leaders do not decide national security policy. Both Mr Marshall and Mr Malinauskas have avoided falling into the trap of pitching for naval shipbuilding projects through a make-work lens and are focused on national security interests.

As Mr Malinauskas pointed out at The Advertiser’s Defending Australia forum on Tuesday: “I think we do ourselves a disservice sometimes as state leaders when we only argue the parochial state-based argument.”

Mr Malinauskas is trying to create jobs and prosperity through capitalising on global trends.

He is seizing on opportunity from federal government policy and BHP expansion.

He’s also mashing up some of Mr Marshall’s plans. It’s further evidence that Mr Malinauskas is a pragmatist, not an ideologue.

Originally published as SA Premier Peter Malinauskas seizes on naval shipbuilding, Northern Water projects to spruik jobs | Paul Starick