Watch: SA Premier, BAE boss respond to Royal Australian Navy shipbuilding overhaul

The premier has hailed revamped plans for Australia’s future navy as a big win for Adelaide’s shipbuilding industry – but the opposition leader sees it very differently.

• Frigates cut amid $20bn blowout but next-gen naval build revealed

The state opposition has accused the state government of failing to stand up for South Australia after plans to build nine Hunter class frigates at Osborne were cut back today.

Opposition leader David Speirs said cutting the Hunter class frigate build from nine to six ships would mean fewer jobs, despite the Premier and industry leaders’ claims to the contrary.

“South Australia’s defence industry has been dealt a hammer blow by Labor today with the announcement the Hunter Class program is being cut from nine frigates to six,” Mr Speirs said.

“Peter Malinauskas has failed to stand up for South Australia and secure certainty for our defence industry and local jobs will be lost as a result.

“The defence industries in South Australia are a fundamental part of our economic sustainability, and this cut simply means fewer jobs and fewer skills for our state.”

His comments come after Premier Peter Malinauskas said the multibillion-dollar boost to the state’s economy from continuous naval shipbuilding at Osborne being cemented today could not be overstated.

Declaring the decision to cement six Hunter class frigates and follow them with next-generation air warfare destroyers “a long time coming”, Mr Malinauskas said the state and nation had been wanting a long-term surface ship building program for some time.

“The country, frankly, has been looking for certainty around what vessels will provide us the sovereignty and the security that we need in the decades to come,” Mr Malinauskas said.

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“Today, the Commonwealth has unambiguously delivered us a commitment that can be banked on, that will see this workforce not just employed into the future but dramatically grown into the future.

“Building major tier-one surface combatant surface ship for our Royal Australian Navy, we are the home of tier-one shipbuilding forevermore, not just a plan to build 1200-tonne frigates into the future but also air warfare destroyer replacements.

“That amounts to a comprehensive plan for continuous shipbuilding in our state.

“That matters. Not just to the workforce here, but to generations of future South Australians that will rely on this work into the future.

“I can’t possibly overstate what this means to our state’s economy.”

Mr Malinauskas said the plan and aspiration had always been for SA to be the home of major surface combatant ship and submarine construction, not the general frigates earmarked for a continuous shipbuilding program in Perth.

But he said the big challenge now was developing the workforce and high-grade skills were required.

“Today is a great day for South Australia, with confirmation a continuous shipbuilding program in Adelaide has been locked in for decades to come,” he said.

“Hunter class frigates will be continuously built in Adelaide through to 2043, and will be followed by the replacement for the Hobart class air warfare destroyers, which will also be built right here in Adelaide.

“This surface shipbuilding workforce is in addition to the more than 4000 workers who will be building nuclear-powered AUKUS submarines in the same vicinity.

“Our job now is to make sure we have the workforce ready to adopt these secure, highly skilled, well paid careers.”

The Adelaide-based builder of six Hunter class frigates says the ship has been confirmed as one of the world’s most advanced anti-submarine warships by the federal government.

In a statement, BAE Systems Australia says confirmation of the Hunter program’s future underlines the governments confidence in the ship and the workforce’s ability to deliver for the navy.

A newly confirmed continuous shipbuilding program will “underpin the continued creation of a world-class shipbuilding enterprise in SA”, BAE says, that can support the navy while creating and sustaining advanced manufacturing jobs.

BAE Systems Australia chief executive officer Ben Hudson said: “Today’s announcement provides decades worth of work at Osborne in South Australia and will see a growth in the work forecast in the West at the Henderson precinct. “This will underpin Australia’s ship building enterprise into the future and sustain vital Australian jobs in high-end manufacturing, while providing resilience for our nation in uncertain times.”

BAE Systems Australia managing director maritime Craig Lockhart praised the Osborne workforce and its progress so far.

“Thanks to the dedication and commitment of our workforce at the Osborne Naval Shipyard, we’ve already made significant progress in delivering the Hunter program and we are committed to working with the government to deliver the program and ensure the Royal Australian Navy has the capability it needs to meet the challenges of the future,” he said.

Mr Lockhart said the surface fleet review decisions were “a vote of confidence in the Osborne workforce and what we’ve achieved in a very short space of time compared to shipbuilding projects around the world”.

Mr Lockhart said many “armchair critics” had never visited the Osborne yard nor spoken to BAE workers.

“And yet we are delivering exactly what was asked of us – a world-class ship design designed to detect and deter the growing submarine threat in the waters around our oceans, but also lay the foundations for the future shipbuilding programs in Australia,” he said.

“I think the announcement of the fleet size in today’s environment is a positive step and secures thousands of shipbuilding jobs for the next many decades.

“And as someone who’s spent their entire career and seen the highs and lows of shipbuilding programs, today is a real kind of positive step in delivering certainty for our future – but backed by real money, and real commitment.”

British High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell, who Mr Lockhart hailed as a great supporter of the Hunter program, said the UK government had always stood behind that and the future AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine construction.

“It is a great day for South Australia. It is a great day for BAE. it is a great day for the United Kingdom’s relationship with Australia and with this state,” she said.

“But most of all, I think it is a great day for the workforce that has gathered here and the workforce of the future yet to come as a result of this investment and commitment to continuous shipbuilding. “

Independent state upper house member Frank Pangallo labelled the axing of three Hunter frigates a “big kick in the guts” for SA, predicting the project’s goalposts would change yet again before any warships were built.

“Anthony Albanese is sailing a ship of fools when it comes to the defence of this country,” he said.

“The government has also announced a decision to build autonomous ships. We are planning to build state-of-the-art ships and subs yet we can’t find enough people to build and crew them. And we don’t have enough soldiers to defend our shores.”

Defence Teaming Centre chief executive officer Libby Day said the re-commitment to a continuous shipbuilding program provided a critical foundation for industry.“The biggest risk to this plan is workforce. Like many other sectors, defence industry is facing a skilled workforce shortage and a lot needs to be done to make sure we have the skills required to ensure we get these ships in the water on time,” she said.

Their comments come in response to news that plans to build nine Hunter class frigates in Adelaide will be reduced to six.

Federal defence minister Richard Marles has confirmed the six remaining anti-submarine frigates will be built immediately at Osborne immediately, followed with new plans to upgrade the navy’s three Adelaide-built Hobart class air warfare destroyers.

The change comes after a review of the Royal Australian Navy’s surface fleet found the cost of building nine frigates at Osborne had exploded from $45bn to $65bn.

Originally published as Watch: SA Premier, BAE boss respond to Royal Australian Navy shipbuilding overhaul