Thousands of Australian jobs will be lost offshore, our economy will miss out on billions of dollars of revenue and our national security will be put at risk if we don’t get commitment to a continuous, national shipbuilding plan from the Federal Government. We can turn this around. This all starts with a commitment to building twelve future submarines in Australia to fulfil our long-term requirements. Sign the petition calling on the Federal Government to commit to a continuous, national shipbuilding plan.

Recent announcements to locally build Australia’s Future Frigates and Offshore Patrol Vessels are a step in the right direction, but are a long way to ensuring a long-term, continuous strategy for Australia’s shipbuilding requirements.

The Valley of Death confronting Australia’s shipbuilding sector is the result of a lack of long-term strategic plan by successive governments.  We need to arrest the impact of stop-start projects by developing and implementing a long-term national plan for shipbuilding that will benefit all Australians.

Thousands of jobs will be lost in Newcastle and Williamstown by the end of the year. The Federal Government needs to act NOW to retain the highly skilled workforce and preserve our national shipbuilding capability, and our local jobs.

Australia already has the infrastructure and the workforce we need to sustain our requirements. Why have successive governments not made a commitment to Australians to build Australia’s future submarines and ships locally?

If the shipbuilding workforce collapses and has to be rebuilt, it will cost Australian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars - money that could be better invested in bridging the Valley of Death and maintaining our local workforce!

Ahead of the release of the Defence White Paper in a few weeks, the Federal Government needs to take action NOW to:

• Commit to a local build of Australia’s future submarines and ships, promoting our national security, economy and local jobs;
• Commit to building 12 submarines as part of our national defence requirements – this minimum requirement is fully supported by the Submarine Institute of Australia’s submission to the 2009 White Paper;
• Commit to bringing forward the shipbuilding projects to mitigate the Valley of Death;
• Commit to developing a national, long-term shipbuilding plan that focuses on whole-of government shipbuilding requirements,naval and non-naval. To be successful that plan must have bipartisan support and be developed in collaboration with all key stakeholders (States, industry, unions etc).  

Only if the Federal Government commits to the above, will Australia’s economy, national security and regional prosperity be guaranteed.