Subs deal needs a partner: Hamilton-Smith
Construction of Australia’s 12 new submarines will need a design partner, South Australia’s Defence Industry Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith says.
“Whether that’s France, Germany or Japan; one way or the other we will clearly need a design partner with expertise in areas such as propulsion,” he told InDaily today.
Hamilton-Smith is in Cairns at a trade ministers conference, having arrived last night from a visit to key defence installations and manufacturers in the USA, including the Boeing factory where military P-8 Poseidon’s are being built before deployment to South Australia.
“The subs debate has been intense and we have South Australia’s interests as our prime concern,” he said.
“Its not a job that can be done on your own – you need design and technology partners and the national government has been in talks for some time with France and Germany and now Japan.
“The key for South Australia is that if it’s a Japanese design that the build or the major part of the build is done here.
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“An offshore build would be distressing for South Australia..
“As a result the Premier and I are focussed on South Australia being a central part of Australia being a ship-building nation.
“There’s an enormous amount tied up in this; almost every South Australian is impacted by it.”
Hamilton-Smith said he, along with Defence SA chief executive Andrew Fletcher, returned to Australia last night after being briefed on progress with two new aircraft capabilities that will be based at Edinburgh airport north of Adelaide.
“The two new capabilities are the UAV Triton surveillance aircraft, announced in March this year by the prime Minister and the P-8 Poseidon Boeing 737 aircraft that are being hardened for use in reconnaissance and surveillance.
“The Triton is in test flight stage and the Poseidon project has just started manufacture at Boeing.
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“The relevance to SA is that around $100 million in capital works will be spent at Edinburgh for hangars, tarmac space, fuelling facilities and other logistic requirements.
“It creates several hundred jobs and, more importantly, locks South Australia in as the base for surveillance aircraft and maintenance.”
Earlier on FIVEAA, Hamilton-Smith took another swipe at his former Liberal Party colleagues when asked if he was having problems taking South Australia’s case to the Federal Government.
“There are still a few Libs with their noses out of joint, but they’ve just got to move on,” he said.
“South Australians don’t want to hear MPs banging on about party political matters.
“I’ve never been more certain that I made the correct decision.”
The State Liberals were rocked when Hamilton-Smith, a former Liberal leader, accepted an offer to join the Weatherill Cabinet as an independent in May this year.
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