Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

The Coalition Government’s commitment to building a strong sovereign naval shipbuilding capability is delivering thousands of jobs as well as strong benefits to the Australian economy.

Labor’s failure to commission a single naval vessel from an Australian yard unfortunately impacted on the stability of shipbuilding jobs as well as the capability of our Navy.

While the Coalition’s continuous naval shipbuilding plan will create thousands of jobs for decades to come, not every job at ASC can be maintained in the short term, as the Air Warfare Destroyer program nears completion.

The Coalition Government is taking action to retain as many ASC employees as possible in the naval shipbuilding industry.

Their skills and experience are important for the construction of future naval capability projects, which is why the Government announced a $29.4 million workforce retention package in December 2017 to support jobs in a number of ways beyond our significant investment including:

• A targeted retention strategy to create up to 200 positions within ASC Submarines for current shipbuilders working on the Air Warfare Destroyer Program.
• Australian Naval Infrastructure has advised Defence an additional 600 direct jobs will be created through the Osborne South shipyard redevelopment.
• ASC secured a further renewal of the Collins class submarine sustainment contract for a further five years.
• Defence has re-engaged ASC to continue to deliver the Navy’s training services for the Collins class submarine program.

As an additional safeguard the Government will ensure that any workers facing retrenchment receive tailored, intensive support to assist them transition to new employment quickly and smoothly.

Affected workers will be supported by a structural adjustment package worth up to $3.9 million to help workers get back into the workforce as quickly as possible.

Support may include financial planning and counselling, skills assessments, digital literacy training, job search support events, assistance in writing resumes and interview preparation, and ongoing access to a local employment facilitator.

Support available under this package will be available not only to retrenched workers in 2019, but also former employees retrenched from 1 July 2018 and is also extended to affected supply chain workers.

The employment support is also available to the partners of the retrenched workers.

The Coalition Government’s $90 billion continuous shipbuilding program will drive jobs growth for decades into the future.

ASC Shipbuilding is a subsidiary of BAE Systems during the build of our Future Frigates.

For more information about the ASC Pty Ltd Structural Adjustment Program, visit: https://www.jobs.gov.au/help-workers-who-have-recently-lost-their-job 

Retrenched workers who would like information about the support available can call the Employment Services Information Line on 13 62 68.