ABC Newcastle

JENNY MARCHANT: And it’s all systems go at Williamtown right now with preparations for the arrival of the Joint Strike Fighters. And today the Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher Pyne, will be at the RAAF base to announce upgrades to the Wedgetail aircraft, among other things. He’s with me now. Good morning, Minister.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning, Jenny.

JENNY MARCHANT: Upgrading the Wedgetail aircraft, what will you be doing there?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, the Wedgetail is one of our most important platforms. It’s an aircraft that provides radar and battle management systems in the actual theatre of war, as it is right now in Iraq and Syria. So it’s a very important platform and it’s vital, of course, that it stay state-of-the-art and continue to be upgraded. So we’re announcing $600 million, or $580 million, today to upgrade the Wedgetail. A lot of that work will be done at Amberley and Williamtown, and that means new jobs for the Hunter Valley, which of course is good news. The first priority, of course, is the capability of the Wedgetail, which is why we’re spending the money, and secondly of course we want to do as much of that work as possible here in Australia, and that means jobs in our economy.

JENNY MARCHANT: There’s 120 jobs in Brisbane, 45 though to be shared between Amberley and Williamtown. Do you know how many of those 45 we’ll get? It doesn’t sound a large number.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, new jobs is always good news, Jenny, and the work that’s being done on the Wedgetail, much of it is very specialised, highly-skilled work, and that’s based in Brisbane where a lot of those people are. And of course, Williamtown will be a beneficiary as well because there’s a significant RAAF base there, as you would know. So of course, there will be jobs, and new jobs is always good news, whether it’s 10 or whether it’s 45 or whether it’s 250.

JENNY MARCHANT: You are of course getting closer, along with the RAAF, to bringing the Joint Strike Fighters to Williamtown, due to arrive next year. You’re opening the Off-Board Information Systems Centre today – what is that?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes, it’s a very complicated name for a logistics centre. So we spent $16 million building this logistics centre in Williamtown; that supported 350 jobs in the Hunter area, and it basically manages the logistics for the Joint Strike Fighter at Williamtown. In 2018, the first of the Joint Strike Fighters will start being based there, and the logistics centre manages training, manages provisions, manages the use of the aircraft.

JENNY MARCHANT: What else needs to happen at Williamtown before the Joint Strike Fighters come?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, there’s a $770 million upgrade at Williamtown, which is fantastic news for the Hunter. It will make the RAAF base there one of the most significant bases in the country, and the Joint Strike Fighters will be based there and elsewhere. And there’s lots of different works that are going on there in terms of the airport itself and the runway and so forth, as well as the support buildings for those kind of planes.

JENNY MARCHANT: Is it appropriate to be continuing to do work on the base when we know that there’s contamination coming off the base and affecting surrounding areas and we don’t yet know how to clean it up?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, the Prime Minister has established a taskforce to manage the issues around the PFAS and PFOA contamination. That’s under the control of Senator James McGrath from Queensland, who I understand has been visiting on a regular basis in the Hunter to talk to those people who have been affected and work out a way forward. And I think we’re doing everything that we can in terms of a health perspective to ensure that the issues around the contamination are properly addressed. He’ll have a lot more to say about what the Government intends to do to support those people down the track and he is the right person to deal with those issues because that’s his specific job.

JENNY MARCHANT: Yeah, and I do understand that, although you deal with contracts and works that are happening there at Williamtown, and people are concerned that work is moving ahead while they, in nearby areas, face a very uncertain future. Is that fair?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes, it is. The advice from the Department of Defence is that the works at the Williamtown RAAF Base are not affected or affecting the issues around the contamination and that the works should continue and will not add to the concerns of those people who have been affected, and of course it’s important work. We wouldn’t be going ahead with the work if it had any impacts on the health of those people, or on the values of their properties, for example. It is some distance from where the contamination has been discovered and the Department of Defence advises me that it’s entirely appropriate.

JENNY MARCHANT: My guest on 1233 ABC Newcastle is Christopher Pyne, the Minister for Defence Industry. The New South Wales Government and defence contractor Thales have announced plans to reopen Newcastle’s slipway and invest in shipbuilding and repair in the city. Will it be a serious contender for defence contracts?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, of course, and one of the terrific things about being the Minister for Defence Industry is that I’m oversighting the largest military build-up of our capability in our peacetime history – it’s a $200 billion investment in our military capability, one of the largest in the world right now. And as you know, we are essentially rebuilding the Navy. After six years of Labor inaction, we’re building 12 submarines, nine frigates, 12 offshore patrol vessels, and 21 Pacific patrol vessels. So 54 vessels are being commissioned by this Government, following zero from the previous Labor Government, and that means we are not just rebuilding the Navy’s capability, but we’re creating a naval shipbuilding industry in Australia – a continuous one – for the first time. That means jobs right around Australia.

Newcastle of course has traditionally been a shipbuilder and they will be a competitive city, competitive companies, for the kind of contracts that support naval shipbuilding. Certainly, the bases for the building of those ships are in Osborne in South Australia and Henderson in Western Australia, but this is the kind of work that’s done right around the country and everyone benefits: the Joint Strike Fighter, for example, where 40 different companies have so far shared in $800 million worth of value in supporting and providing parts and work for the Joint Strike Fighter, spread right around the country, from Brisbane right through to Perth. So it’s not the case anymore that all the work is done in one place; it is a national enterprise and that will benefit the Hunter Valley as much as it will benefit many other parts of the country.

JENNY MARCHANT: There has been a strong push, though, to focus in on shipbuilding and support that industry in Adelaide in particular – your hometown – and often in Newcastle people say, well, we’re punished because it’s traditionally a Labor town that always votes Labor. Can you reassure people here that politics is not at play and that Newcastle is a contender for these big contracts?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, of course that’s not the reason why the submarines are being built in Osborne. They’re being built at Osborne because that’s the only place with a submarine ship-lift. And the most important decision was that we decided to build the ships in Australia. Once that decision has been made, Osborne was always going to be the site for the submarine building. Newcastle is certainly not off the map because most of its members are Labor members. That would be an absurd proposition – that’s no way to govern.

As I’ve said, Newcastle does do shipbuilding and it will be a contender for many of the subcontracts in this very large ship build. But the Government has made the decision that we’ll have two shipbuilding ports: one will be in Osborne and one will be in Henderson, because to have a successful continuous naval shipbuilding industry, we need to make the decision to put large shipbuilding in one place, and a smaller shipbuilding in the other. It was a difficult and firm decision, but we’ve made it, and we’re getting on with the job. And Newcastle will benefit in so many ways. I just explained $770 million for the Williamtown Base upgrade is certainly going to benefit the economy in the Hunter, and today of course I’m announcing the upgrade of the Wedgetail, which means new jobs at the Hunter. So the Hunter Valley is benefiting as much as anywhere else is in Australia from this huge build up of our military capability.

JENNY MARCHANT: On the shipbuilding topic though, you mentioned those other centres which have been established as centres for that work to be done. Is there room for it to grow, or is it the case that those centres are now well established – they have the skills, they have the reputation – that contracts would continue to go to those centres?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, the significant decisions around where the frigates, offshore patrol vessels, Pacific patrol vessels and submarines will be built have been made. They will be built at Osborne and at Henderson, but the subcontracting work, and many of the specialised work, will spread right around the country, from Tasmania right through to Cairns, and Newcastle will be a beneficiary in that as part of that winning contracts on these builds. Let’s not forget the submarine contract is $50 billion, the Future Frigates is $35 billion – that won’t all be spent in one place. That’ll be spent right around the country, benefiting all the economy and lifting the entire Australian economy.

JENNY MARCHANT: My guest on 1233 at a quarter to nine is Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne. Minister, you issued an apology for your comments on same-sex marriage that seemed to have sparked real concern within the Coalition, but the comments remain out there in the public domain. Will we see same-sex marriage legislated before the next election?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, the only person who is standing in the way of marriage equality is Bill Shorten, because if we had the plebiscite in February – as it was planned – we would have – assuming it was passed – marriage equality by now. We’d have had it February or March. So I’m disappointed in Bill Shorten and the Labor Party for stopping a national vote. We saw a poll only this week – an Essential poll – which showed 59 per cent of people want a national vote and 60 per cent of people support marriage equality. Now, we could get on with that today if Bill Shorten indicated that he would support the plebiscite legislation through the Parliament.

JENNY MARCHANT: So in your view, that is the only thing preventing this going ahead? That the Coalition would be happy to introduce a plebiscite as soon as possible if it weren’t for opposition from Bill Shorten and the Labor Party?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, that’s right. I mean, the Labor Party has already popped the Plebiscite Bill once last year, stopping the plebiscite from going ahead in February. Now, at the time I think the Labor Party thought that was very clever because it kept this issue on the boil, but it’s very unfair on the – as the Census points out – almost 50,000 couples in Australia who regard themselves as same-sex couples and are in a permanent partnership who would like to marry. It stops those people being able to marry because Bill Shorten didn’t allow the plebiscite. So, in fact, it’s very unfair what he’s doing on those people who would like to have marriage equality in this country.

JENNY MARCHANT: There are suggestions following your comments and the discussion around that last week, that the Liberal Party’s in disarray – that there is disagreement within factions behind the scenes within the party room. Is that the case?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No.

JENNY MARCHANT: Just an outright no?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, it’s just not the case.

JENNY MARCHANT: Are you a united- I mean, you can’t be a united front on every issue though, surely?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, it’s a kind of ridiculous question [laughs], and I’ve answered it and I’m not going to reopen this issue.

JENNY MARCHANT: Okay. I appreciate your time. Enjoy your visit to Williamtown today. Thank you very much.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s a pleasure. Thank you.

JENNY MARCHANT: Thank you. Christopher Pyne, who’s the Minister for Defence Industry. He’ll be in Williamtown – as you heard – making announcements about upgrades to the Wedgetail, opening that new facility around the Joint Strike Fighters as well.