Statements
Defence industries—Delegation to UK and Europe
Brief ministerial statement
Mr Paul Papalia (Secret Harbour—Minister for Defence Industries) (1:02 pm): I rise to inform the house that I led a defence industry–focused delegation to Europe and the United Kingdom from 1 September to 12 September.
The AUKUS trilateral agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States has never been more important. With increasing global uncertainty, building strong relationships with partners in the UK and North Atlantic Treaty Organization is important as it not only benefits our nation's security but also sets the conditions for the continued growth of our great Western Australian defence industry. To that end, I met with senior NATO and European Commission officials in Brussels, and prime defence companies Thales and Saffron in Paris.
In the United Kingdom, I delivered a keynote address at the Australian British Chamber of Commerce's defence catalyst event and led an industry delegation of more than 20 Western Australian companies to the world's largest international defence exposition for defence and security equipment, DSEI UK. DSEI UK attracts more than 1,600 exhibitors from over 90 countries and has over 60,000 attendees. It provides an incredible platform for WA companies to showcase their capabilities to global defence leaders. Both events create an opportunity to highlight Western Australia's strategic capabilities and promote the role these companies can play in the UK defence supply chain, which will facilitate their own capability uplift.
I was joined by impressive WA companies, including Greenroom Robotics, Blacktree Technology, Aurora Labs, Global Coating Systems, CiTech, Onetide, Franmarine, Matrix Composites and Engineering, Nautic Technologies, Hofman Engineering and Advanced Navigation.
My mission included site visits to two key international defence primes, Rolls–Royce and BAE Systems. I am pleased to inform the house that we were successful in signing memoranda of understanding with these organisations to advance industry development, supply chain and workforce opportunities for Western Australian companies. These defence primes play a critical role in the delivery of support to nuclear-powered submarines and are contributing to our nation's capability uplift requirements to make Australia's acquisition of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines a reality.
I was joined by shadow Minister for Defence Industries and AUKUS, Ms Libby Mettam, during my United Kingdom engagements. This was a demonstration of the bipartisan commitment to AUKUS and to growing and supporting WA's defence sector. The important mission was very busy and successful, and WA companies achieved multiple global partnership outcomes during DSEI UK. I will continue to pursue opportunities to support the growth and success of our defence sector.
Today, I table a copy of my itinerary for the information of the house.
(See paper 475.)
