BAE Systems Australia maritime managing director Craig Lockhart,who oversees naval shipyards in Perth and Adelaide,said finding shipbuilders and other workers was significantly more difficult in Western Australia because of the state’s low unemployment rate and competition from the high-paying resources sector.
British shipbuilder BAE Systems will build six Hunter-class frigates for the navy,down from a planned nine.Supplied
Western Australia was the big winner from,with the government announcing it would build up to eight general-purpose frigates at Perth’s Henderson shipyards after buying three ships from overseas.
The government will select a winner from existing designs submitted by German,Spanish,South Korean and Japanese companies.
The government also announced that a fleet of six large “optionally crewed vessels” would be built at the Henderson shipyards,softening the blow from a decision to slash the number of offshore patrol vessels there.
Lockhart said that while demand for shipbuilding jobs in Adelaide still exceeded supply,resources companies in Western Australia were “stealing our people on a weekly basis”.
“I worry about the level of ambition for WA and would hate to see WA pitted against South Australia for scarce resources,” he said.
“It’s a risk for us.”
Western Australia has an unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent compared to 4.2 per cent in South Australia,and has the highest weekly average earnings for full-time workers in the country.
BAE Systems will build six Hunter-class frigates for the navy at Adelaide’s Osborne shipyards after the government reduced the planned order from nine ships.
Lockhart said he felt vindicated that the much-maligned Hunter-class program had survived a review led by former US Vice Admiral William Hilarides,despite concerns about its huge size and lack of missile cells.
“The experts have spoken,and they have found there is no better anti-submarine warfare capability in the world than the Hunter,” Lockhart said.
He said the government’s announcement “provides stability for the Hunter-class program and allows us to put all the conjecture behind us”.
During a visit to Adelaide on Wednesday,Defence Minister Richard Marles said the South Australian shipbuilding industry will “build and continue to build forever”.
Lockhart said he was baffled by government claims that the cost of the Hunter-class program had blown out from $45 billion to $65 billion.
“Any blow-out is not in BAE Systems’ scope of responsibilities,” he said. “Our numbers have not changed.”
He said it would be “common sense” for the government to use the same hull as the Hunter-class frigate when it begins building a new fleet of air warfare destroyers in Adelaide in the 2040s.
“It would be silly for the government to give up that opportunity,” he said.
Commenting on the government’s decision to slash its order of offshore patrol vessels from 12 to six,German shipbuilding company Luerssen said it understood that “changes in the geopolitical circumstances affecting Australia has resulted in the government’s decision to change the composition and structure of the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatant fleet”.
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