South Australian Defence Industry

The Defence Industry matters to South Australia. The state is home to 32% of the Australian defence industry workforce. That includes many British companies like BAE Systems, Babcock, Cobham and Ultra. Employment in the sector is expected to grow from 27,000 to 37,000 by 2020. This is important at a time when some of SA’s traditional manufacturing industries, like its Holden car plant, are facing challenges. The state has invested heavily in providing state of the art infrastructure.

With my Defence Adviser, Brig Will Taylor, I had an informative briefing from the Defence SA industry organisation. Then we headed out to Techport to visit the ASC shipyard. I had last been there a few months ago when we had HMS Daring alongside. We had the opportunity to clamber over the first of three Air Warfare Destroyers which are currently being constructed for the Royal Australian Navy. It is a massive industrial process, with huge steel modules being fabricated in the ASC sheds and at a number of other locations around Australia, then assembled in the shipyard.

As often happens on my travels around Australia, I recognised with pleasure the West Country accent of Steve, the ship project manager who showed us around the vessel. His Devonian burr was undiminished by 20 years in Australia, in a career which began in Devonport Dockyard in my home county.

Whilst in Adelaide, I had dinner with Martin Hamilton-Smith, shadow Industry minister, who knows a thing or two about defence as a former special forces officer. I also briefly caught up with his colleague Steven Marshall, Opposition Leader – we both did our MBAs at the same UK university, Durham. I recently did an interview for their alumni magazine.