ABBOTT'S NEGLECT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA TAKES EFFECT

Media Release

Mark Butler MP.

Shadow Minister for Environment
 Climate Change and Water

Date:  14 July 2015

Tony Abbott’s broken promise to build 12 submarines in Adelaide is costing more South Australian jobs, according to reports this morning. 

Before the election, then Shadow Minister for Defence, Senator David Johnston promised a Coalition Government would build 12 submarines in Adelaide, reassuring thousands of shipbuilders their jobs were secure for the long term. 

After the election, Senator Johnston denigrated the talented workers at ASC with his hurtful comments about not trusting them to ‘build a canoe’. In response to leadership turmoil, Tony Abbott then announced his cynical Competitive Evaluation Process for the submarine project to save his own job. 

Amid this uncertainty, reports today reveal the ASC has had to retrench up to 200 shipbuilders without any guarantee of further work as the Government refuses to make good on its promise to build 12 submarines in Adelaide. This is in addition to the 120 jobs already lost at ASC on Tony Abbott’s watch. 

Yesterday we joined with Bill Shorten and Federal Labor colleagues to show our support for ASC workers in Osborne and to reassure them that Labor is committed to building, maintaining and sustaining 12 submarines in South Australia. 

Tony Abbott has given up on South Australia. He’s accepted the Liberal Party is on the nose and it’s not worth his time trying to win back support. 

He has consistently attacked every industry that underpins South Australia’s economy. He drove away the car industry, threw the renewable energy industry into freefall and has tried to send our ship building industry overseas. 

South Australians deserve better than Tony Abbott as Prime Minister. 

Unlike Mr Abbott, Labor won’t give up on South Australia.