Supashock, Adelaide

13 Apr 2017 Transcipt

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Supashock, Adelaide
13 April 2017

SUBJECTS: Supashock Entrepreneur’s Grant; Superannuation Policy; North Korean Tensions; South Australian RSLs



CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s great to be here at Supashock today to announce an entrepreneur’s grant under the commercialisation programme of half a million dollars for this fantastic South Australian business. I’m here with Oscar Fiorinotto who is the founder and CEO and chairman of the business and it’s a real success story in South Australia and a secret one though, and we want to get their story out.

Here at Supashock they produce very advanced shock absorbers for things like the F1 circuit and for BHP and for the Australian Defence Forces and they’re now an export company with a company called Rheinmetall, who are making very large trucks and trailers for the ADF as part of the Australian Government’s massive expansion of our military capability.

This is a half a million dollar grant, it will allow Supashock to continue to do research and development on these very particular shock absorbers in order to make them very high performance, and lift the entire performance and capability of the platform. Not just the driving capability, but in fact the whole way things like these heavy trucks and trailers operate for the Army and for other parts of the Defence Forces. So congratulations to Supashock and it’s going to be terrific as they continue to expand.

The last time I was here, they’ve added 12 employees since that time, so they welcome me here every time I come in the hope that I might bring something that will help expand this business.

JOURNALIST: I was going to say is this funding specifically going to create any more jobs here?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Probably, yeah.

OSCAR FIORINOTTO: Absolutely, I think if you look at our trajectory to date we are very heavily tied in with the university program and we’ve already spoken to graduates as from the announcement and we’re looking at employing two new graduates immediately. We expect this grant to assist in providing up to as many as 10 jobs for this program.

JOURNALIST: When do you think those 10 jobs will come?

OSCAR FIORINOTTO: So we expect before the end of this year.

JOURNALIST: Just a few questions on another few issues it that’s okay.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Sure, yeah.

JOURNALIST: In terms of the super argument at the moment, would you support younger people using some of their superannuation at the moment to help them save for a mortgage?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look, I’ve made it very clear this morning in the media and yesterday, that matters to do with the Budget remain part of the Budget process. The night of the Budget is when we announce the government policies and the economic levers that we intend to pull going forward and my colleagues who are talking about these matters are actually doing themselves a disfavour if they think that that is a way to get the outcome that they want. The truth is that Budget matters are for the Budget and the Prime Minister has restated our policy yesterday from India, which is that we don’t support tinkering with super and allowing it to be used for housing. Super is for superannuation. People saving their own money or borrowing from the bank or finding other sources to buy housing is for that part of the market.

JOURNALIST: So you just touched on that but you don’t think it is helpful if some of your colleagues, whether it’s frontbencher or backbencher, are commenting on this in public?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No these are matters for the Budget process, they’re not matters for public commentary.

JOURNALIST: Are you aware of any problems with computer systems in the Defence Taipan helicopters at the moment?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No.

JOURNALIST: No, you haven’t been informed of any kind of computer system…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No.

JOURNALIST: No, that’s okay, just asking, thank you very much.

JOURNALIST: Just on defence, what’s going on with the US, are we on the brink of World War Three here?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well obviously the situation in North Korea is a very serious one. North Korea is probably the most challenging hot spot in the world today. We have an unpredictable government in North Korea with a significant military capability. That puts us at risk and the United States at risk, and Japan and South Korea, and so President Trump is making it very clear to the regime in Pyongyang that they need to behave as far as they can as good international citizens. The responsibility for this mostly rests with China, as China is the hermit kingdom’s closest ally and has been since the Korean War in the 1950s. And it’s good to see overnight that the Chinese government has stepped up to the mark and is putting pressure on North Korea to ensure that it behaves itself. North Korea has a very poor history in terms of its engagement with the region and the world, but in President Trump and the United States they’re making it very clear that we won’t tolerate them continuing to build their nuclear capability such that it might reach Australia or the United States.

JOURNALIST: What’s our response been, how do we help calm the situation down?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we have been ensuring that we are taking part in the UN processes, talking to the other countries in the region and around the world about economic sanctions on North Korea and supporting the United States in the actions that they are taking to put pressure on North Korea to stop testing missiles in that part of north Asia.

JOURNALIST: And you may not have any comment on this but just before ANZAC Day, South Australia’s RSL is going into administration. Do you want to make a comment?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Look it’s a great pity, the only thing I know about the RSL situation is what I’ve read in the paper. Obviously the state government might well decide to step in to assist the RSL as it’s a state based organisation. I understand it won’t affect plans for ANZAC Day and I’ll be asking about it because I have several RSLs in my own electorate of course, asking about how they might be operating going forward when I get the chance.