• Minister Pyne addresses the Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board. Credit: @cpyne via Twitter
    Minister Pyne addresses the Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board. Credit: @cpyne via Twitter
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Patrick Durrant | Sydney

Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne convened the first sitting of the Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board yesterday, stressing its importance as a vital part of the Government's agenda.

Pyne said the Government had made difficult decisions around the sites of the shipyards. 

“[We've] decided to have two shipyards, one at Henderson and one at Osborne, in South Australia and Western Australia.”

Citing “significant decisions around infrastructure that need to be made”, Pyne said the Government was planning to “massively [increase] the workforce” despite what he referred to as media coverage to the contrary.

“So a lot of the media like to focus on the redundancies that are occurring as the air warfare destroyers come to an end in terms of their build phase, but we need to build with 5000, minimum, skilled artisans and engineers and scientists and specialists over the next five or six years,” he said.

“So the skills component is a very big part of the workforce development that we’re looking for you to help us with in terms of advice.”

He reiterated the Government's intention to build a manufacturing base in country, and said it was not proud of the country's record as the “sixth highest importer of defence materiel in recent years”.

“We can’t compete with certain countries around the world in making t-shirts ... [but] we can certainly compete in making frigates and submarines and offshore patrol vessels.”

Minister Pyne told ADM in an exclusive From the Source interview in our recent Dec/Jan issue that he would not be hurried on introducing the Naval Shipbuilding Plan.

“What we need to have is a naval shipbuilding plan that is comprehensive, achievable, and realistic ... there will be [a plan] and it will be released at the appropriate time.”

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