Post by ferryfast admin on Jan 29, 2006 0:15:44 GMT -5
Opposition targets defence dollars
By Alex Mitchell
January 29, 2006
WINNING multibillion-dollar defence contracts to build warships and fighter aircraft in NSW will become a strategic aim of a future Coalition government.
Opposition Leader Peter Debnam will create a Defence Industry Unit within the Premier's Department to win a bigger share of the nation's defence spending for locally-based companies.
With NSW being starved of Commonwealth navy and air force projects for more than a decade, he wants to restore the state's position as the centre of the Australian defence industry.
Greater opportunities have been presented by the promotion of Brendan Nelson, MP for the Sydney North Shore seat of Bradfield, to Defence Minister in place of Adelaide-based Robert Hill.
Mr Debnam has asked his two parliamentary secretaries, Anthony Roberts, MP for Lane Cove and an Army Reserve officer, and upper house MP Charlie Lynn, a Vietnam veteran, and Hawkesbury MP Steve Pringle, who served as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy for 21 years, to develop close links with the defence industries sector. He also promised, if elected in March next year, to appoint a NSW Defence Industry Advisory Board comprising key government and industry representatives to help win defence work.
He accused the Carr and Iemma governments of relying too heavily on the property sector at the expense of other parts of the economy.
The state's once pre-eminent shipbuilding and aerospace industries should be brought back into production, said Mr Debnam, a former RAN officer who served on HMAS Vampire and HMAS Torrens, which were both built at Cockatoo Island.
Historically, half of Australia's major warships were built in NSW, but today not one major warship has been built in the state.
Two future defence contracts which a Debnam government would help pitch for are the amphibious ships project, involving the construction of two 26,000-tonne vessels valued at $2 billion, and assembly of up to 100 Lockheed Martin F-35 joint strike fighters at a cost of $11 billion.
Mr Debnam said he wanted to woo back the thousands of jobs that had gone interstate in pursuit of defence work.
He will unveil the policy tomorrow at a lunch for western Sydney and defence industry executives at Parramatta.
By Alex Mitchell
January 29, 2006
WINNING multibillion-dollar defence contracts to build warships and fighter aircraft in NSW will become a strategic aim of a future Coalition government.
Opposition Leader Peter Debnam will create a Defence Industry Unit within the Premier's Department to win a bigger share of the nation's defence spending for locally-based companies.
With NSW being starved of Commonwealth navy and air force projects for more than a decade, he wants to restore the state's position as the centre of the Australian defence industry.
Greater opportunities have been presented by the promotion of Brendan Nelson, MP for the Sydney North Shore seat of Bradfield, to Defence Minister in place of Adelaide-based Robert Hill.
Mr Debnam has asked his two parliamentary secretaries, Anthony Roberts, MP for Lane Cove and an Army Reserve officer, and upper house MP Charlie Lynn, a Vietnam veteran, and Hawkesbury MP Steve Pringle, who served as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy for 21 years, to develop close links with the defence industries sector. He also promised, if elected in March next year, to appoint a NSW Defence Industry Advisory Board comprising key government and industry representatives to help win defence work.
He accused the Carr and Iemma governments of relying too heavily on the property sector at the expense of other parts of the economy.
The state's once pre-eminent shipbuilding and aerospace industries should be brought back into production, said Mr Debnam, a former RAN officer who served on HMAS Vampire and HMAS Torrens, which were both built at Cockatoo Island.
Historically, half of Australia's major warships were built in NSW, but today not one major warship has been built in the state.
Two future defence contracts which a Debnam government would help pitch for are the amphibious ships project, involving the construction of two 26,000-tonne vessels valued at $2 billion, and assembly of up to 100 Lockheed Martin F-35 joint strike fighters at a cost of $11 billion.
Mr Debnam said he wanted to woo back the thousands of jobs that had gone interstate in pursuit of defence work.
He will unveil the policy tomorrow at a lunch for western Sydney and defence industry executives at Parramatta.