SA shipbuilding dragged into Canning by-election
South Australia has been dragged into the federal stoush over tomorrow’s Canning by-election, with Labor accusing the Coalition of pillaging WA’s shipbuilding industry to “paper over” political problems in SA.
Alannah MacTiernan, the ALP member for Perth, hit the hustings yesterday in support of her party’s candidate Matt Keogh, warning it was “absolutely critical” that Western Australia had “stronger representation from Labor in the Federal Parliament”.
“For too long now WA has been taken for granted by the federal Coalition,” she said.
“They’ve seen this as a blue state (and thought) they don’t have to try very hard… they can rip out the offshore patrol vessels from Western Australia, no problem, to paper over some problems they’ve got in South Australia.
“That’s not acceptable.”
You might like
There has been anger in the WA shipbuilding industry since ousted Prime Minister Tony Abbott said construction work on a lucrative $4 billion warship contract – which had been expected to be awarded to the Perth-based Austal shipyard – would likely begin in Adelaide.
“The Offshore Patrol Vessels will most likely start in Adelaide in 2018 but from 2020 they may well — I don’t say it’s certain — but it’s certainly possible they could be built in Williamstown (in Victoria),” Abbott told Melbourne radio last month.
SA Premier Jay Weatherill told InDaily “our position has always been an Australian build is the preferable option – of course we believe South Australia is best positioned to deliver this”.
“We reached out to the other states to be a part of a coalition on shipbuilding – only Victoria has signed on,” he said.
Stay informed, daily
MacTiernan, a former minister in the Gallop State Government and herself a one-time candidate for Canning, has been a strong advocate for awarding the contract to WA.
She spoke in parliament this week about how the federal leadership change would impact on her home state, asking: “Will the new leader reverse the decision to deny WA the chance to build the next generation of offshore patrol vessels?”
Defence has been a running theme in the by-election in Perth’s south, which was triggered by the death of sitting Liberal MP Don Randall in July. The Liberal candidate, Andrew Hastie, is a former SAS captain who has railed against the defence policies of the former Gillard and Rudd Governments, claiming soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan were put in danger by politicians more interested in photo opportunities.
MacTiernan told media yesterday that supporting Keogh “will be a vote for strong representation in WA”.
The by-election comes amid increasing pressure over the next generation of submarines, with SA frontbencher Christopher Pyne mooted for the defence portfolio when Malcolm Turnbull reshuffles his cabinet.
It’s understood Pyne would then be the likely beneficiary of a defence white paper that was already planned to announce substantial building work in SA, although it is expected to scale back the scope of the procurement from 12 vessels to “eight to ten”.
A motion moved by SA Independent senator Nick Xenophon and Labor yesterday – which passed with crossbench support – urged the Federal Government to “commit to its pre-election promise to a local build of submarines and withdraw the stipulated options for ‘design and build overseas‘ and a ‘hybrid approach’ on Australia‘s future submarines”.
Significantly, though, a paragraph urging it to “commit to the procurement of 12 submarines” was removed from the motion after the Government successfully amended it.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
