Subscribers only. Is it possible to give a slightly more expansive summary?
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AFR article.
by*John Kerin
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has promised to ensure a constant flow of work to shipyards to ensure the Royal Australian Navy is equipped to meet any seaborne threat.
Three*major shipbuilders, Melbourne based BAE Systems Australia and Newcastle based Forgacs and Adelaide based ASC, are all laying off staff due to*the stop start nature of warship work.
The layoffs have been triggered by a wind-down in work on the*$9 billion project to build three air warfare destroyers for the Navy.*
Mr Abbott, in a speech on the future of defence in Canberra on Thursday, said the Abbott government would soon have more to say on a plan to restructure shipbuilding to ensure there were no gaps between projects to avoid layoffs.
The government is expected to outline how it will manage the $25 billion program to build up to nine frigates for the Royal Australian Navy.
Mr Abbott said notwithstanding the "cost blowouts and delays" associated with the $9 billion Adelaide*based program the govenrment remained committed to a local naval shipbuilding*industry.
He also made special mention of Perth based shipbuilder Austal which is building littoral combat ships and frigates for the US Navy which he said demonstrated "Australia can successfully build surface warships under the right conditions".
ASX listed*Austal has indicated*it is interested in buying Adelaide based shipbuilder ASC*and it is understood the firm*has*urged the federal*government to consider*the aluminium hulled*warships it is building for the US Navy for the Royal Australian Navy frigate project - though it is also willing to build conventional steel vessels.
The Department of Finance is examining options for the future sale of ASC including hiving off the*shipbuilding and submarine businesses.*
"It is the government's intention to develop continuous build of major warships in Australia to avoid the unproductive on-again off again cycle that has done the industry so much damage," Mr Abbott said on Thursday.
"There will be further announcements about naval shipbuilding in the next few weeks," he said.
Mr Abbott in a speech to build on the government's dominance on national security also pledged it would stick to its promise in a defence white paper to be released later this year to boost defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP or more than $50 billion a year by 2022-23.
The defence whitepaper will lay*out the government's vision for the nation's security*over the next 20 years and will include an ambitious $275 billion plus weapons wishlist including new ships, fighter jets and armoured vehicles.
"First and foremost our armed forces should be capable of successfully repelling any regional adversary and inflicting very severe damage on any attacker," Mr Abbott said.
"But because Australia does have global interests, our armed forces should be capable of contributing proportionately to our allies military operations around the globe," Mr Abbott said.
But the Labor Opposition has complained Mr Abbott's shipbuilding plan*has come too late with BAE laying off hundreds of workers and considering closing its Melbourne shipyard, Forgacs threatening to close by Christmas and Adelaide based shipbuilder shedding*120 jobs.
In a joint statement, Shadow defence spokesman Stephen Conroy and assistant defence spokesman David Feeney said the government's decision last year to award a refuelling ship tender to an offshore contractor had "sent shockwaves through the shipbuilding industry".
"The Abbott government is decimating Australia's sovereign shipbuilding capabilities," it said.
A review of the shipbuilding industry carried out by the US based Rand Corporation released in April said the industry needs to rationalise, lift productivity and be provided with a constant flow of new projects to be viable.
It said*the industry needs to shrink from its current size of about 5000 workers down to 2000 long term, comprising no more than one or two shipbuilders to build some of the $80 billion work of warships the country needs over the next two decades.
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