SA’s $ 90b ship comes sailing in
THERE’S an apocryphal story about a farming couple who won a significant Lotto jackpot.
“What are we going to do now?” the wife asked.
“Reckon we’ll just keep on farming until it’s all gone,” her husband replied.
The Federal Government seems to have taken a similar approach to defence industry in South Australia with this week’s announcement of $ 90 billion continuous naval ship building plan.
It’s an expensive option given the RAND Corporation in 2015 estimated Australian building costs were 30- 40 per cent greater than in the US.
Of course it was coincidentally announced by PM Turnbull and Defence Industries Minister Christopher Pyne in the latter’s home state where Australia’s construction of replacement submarines will begin in 2022.
The Government will also invest $ 1.3 billion into domestic shipbuilding facilities at Osbourne in South Australia and Henderson in Western Australia. Victoria’s Williamstown naval dockyards have not been included in the deal.
The Government claims the plan will create 15,000 jobs, though to do so it will require a new shipbuilding college in Adelaide to train any potential workforce with an emphasis on South Australian employees.
This will be a challenge given what is termed the “valley of death” syndrome in which specialist skills are lost in the interval between large shipbuilding projects. The imminent end of the air warfare destroyer project in South Australia and Victoria will exacerbate this.
It is more realistic, however, that South Australia will have to import skilled workers from interstate and overseas to meet the 5200 estimated workers required by the late 2020s. This could involve relocating skilled workers from Victoria.
Mr Pyne justified this by suggesting most of the foreign workers will be employed to transfer their “intellectual property” into South Australia’s workforce to build new vessels and maintain the existing fleet.
The Government has committed to 12 offshore patrol vessels, nine future frigates and 12 submarines.
The announcement apparently left Victoria green with envy, believing it was a better prospect despite phasing out its coal- fired electricity generators in favour of “renewables”.
It would seem that karma – sponsored by as well as envy – is green. The announcement will be welcome in South Australia because its manufacturing industries are in terminal decline, with both Mitsubishi and General Motors having abandoned the state.
The Federal Government has demonstrated remarkable optimism investing in heavy manufacturing in a state in which successive Labor governments have also eschewed coal- fired power generation in favour of renewables.
Given the state can hardly keep its lights on during peak demand or even savage weather events, it’s a big ask to bank on it being able to guarantee reliable power generation for heavy industry which also includes specialist welding.
As for North Queensland, Cairns has been tossed a $ 400 million third division dividend to provide deep maintenance for Pacific Class patrol boats.
It’s also been offered ongoing maintenance of the Armidale- class patrol boats.
With a state election looming in South Australia in the next 10 months perhaps the Federal Government is betting on an electoral jackpot.
Up here we are left waiting for our numbers to land. TOWNSVILLE patients affected by cystic fibrosis will have their time spent in hospital made easier thanks to a simple but vital donation.
Members of Joint Logistic Unit, headquartered at Lavarack Barracks, and CF North Queensland awareness group Supporters of 65 Roses Inc. h two bar fridges to the Towns Paediatric Department.
The bar fridges will be use for patients affected by CF.
Townsville Hospital paed respiratory physician Dr Ram