Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, , 5:32:34 to 5:34:43
The committee explores the potential use of the Williamstown shipyard in Victoria. Defense officials explain that while the workforce is strong, infrastructure and supply chain constraints make it a less viable option compared to Adelaide and Henderson.
Topics: Infrastructure, Employment
Speakers: David Hanley, James Paterson, Raff Ciccone, Unknown Speaker
>> Uh Senator um we we have been keeping an eye on that as part of our uh maintaining our industrial base if you like and um >> uh recently I you are aware that that site was sold.
>> I don't think it's been sold yet. I think it's going through a process
clearly. Um and yes we we were asked by the government to u monitor and manage um that as an option potentially for us. Um it has changed a lot in the decade since we were last doing warships in
>> Indeed.
>> Um and it's not just about the infrastructure senator. It's also about the workforce and the supply chain that needs to exist where you have a docks like that. So our view is to my job is to make sure that we're looking at a national base, industry base >> to support all our warships. Um and at at the point of time that we became alert to the fact that was being sold by BAE, we did not see that as a viable option for us. Um in terms of we already have our two major precincts in Adelaide and and we'll have in Western Australia with Henderson. >> Um and so yeah. And is that primarily
because of the state of the infrastructure at Williamstown or is it workforce or
>> it's all three of them, Senator?
>> Because just on workforce very quickly because I know that I'm testing the chair's generosity here. But I mean I can't imagine that there's less workforce available in Victoria for a dock like that than there is in Adelaide or Perth where there are smaller populations, the very competitive markets. I mean surely there are in terms of qualified people in a larger population state with a strong industrial history there are there will be workers available if you needed to.
>> Yeah, you're absolutely right Senator. In fact, that was the one key positive with Williamstown is Victoria has a very strong workforce that can translate quite quickly to and from ship building. So it wasn't a workforce constraint, >> it was an infrastructure constraint and a supply chain constraint because those things have moved on.
>> Okay. All right. explore that in more detail another time. Thank you, chair.
>> Thanks a lot, Senator. Now, Senator Lambie,