Page 107 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec19-Jan20

DECEMBER 2019 – JANUARY 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
FROM THE SOURCE MELISSA PRICE 107
So that’s at home. But what are we doing over- seas and what are we able to do as a government to support the growth of export opportunities to overseas? And to that end we had a very good trip to the UK with the DSEI trade show in London. I’ve had some feedback from the 60-odd delegates (that’s the most delegates we’ve had) that went to London and they said it was really encouraging, the number of people that came up and talked to them about their product or their service and in their words – people are now serious when they’re coming to talk to them about their product.
Everyone was very interested in the Australian delegation; in who we were talking to, where were we going. Australia is very clearly in a strong posi- tion and are looking for partnership opportunities on many fronts.
Again, our $200 billion is buying us much more
than just widgets and submarines. People know
that’s the commitment of the federal government
and almost by association or osmosis or the fact
we’ve got a lot of attention on our federal government, if you’re an Australian company and you’re credible, you’re seen to be reliable, the chances are people are very inter- ested in talking to you about what you’re capable of doing.
We are now getting a reputation as being innovative but also producing a high-quality reliable product from a five eyes partner. Also the exchange rate is very helpful for us at the moment.
ADM: What role do you see a national space agency play- ing in the Defence realm, given now that 90 per cent of all Defence assets rely on space generated data in some way, shape or form?
ABOVE: Land 400 Phase 2’s Boxer is now being delivered, with the first vehicles from Germany now in country.
people also talk about well what else could I be doing in terms of supporting our space ambitions.
ADM: In three years time, what does success look like for you in this role? What do you want to have achieved? PRICE: Well the Prime Minister has told me it’s my job to deliver that $200 billion worth of defence industry capa- bility. Success will mean we’ve got a significant number –
PRICE: The Australian National Space Agency was established in 2018 and Defence has had a longstanding involvement in the space arena. There’s is no doubt that space technology will be applicable to our defence capability, like satellites. When we’re review- ing our capability needs, there’s no doubt that we will look to space technology to see how it will fit.
“WE ARE NOW GETTING A REPUTATION AS BEING INNOVATIVE BUT ALSO PRODUCING HIGH QUALITY, RELIABLE PRODUCTS FROM A FIVE EYES PARTNER.”
and I can’t put a number on it yet but in the next six months I think I will have figured it out – we will have increased the number of Australian SMEs in our supply chain.
We will be well and truly on our way to ensuring we’ve got that 15,000 people who are skilled to enable them to work in our Australian shipbuilding industry. There will be a greater number of Australian SMEs from regional Australia who are involved in our defence industries. And a greater number of export opportunities through improvements to the way that we handle export applications to existing
Now we don’t have all the answers yet but,
of course, that is just if you’re talking about
solutions, of course space technology will
form part of that. Small and micro businesses
make up a large part of the space industry – businesses like Inovor in South Australia are a good example of how these small businesses in the space industry can partner with defence. We’ve just announced a $2.5 million contract for Inovor to develop a nano satellite to help with Defence’s Buc- caneer Space Mission.
partners like the US and new partners too.
We’ve spent a bit of time in the US this year talking about
the barriers in the US and the opportunities for Australian companies to be able to export into the US.
ADM: We’re now part of their industrial base on paper. PRICE: We are but I think -- but it’s one thing to be on paper, I want it to be in practice. We’ve had some very, very valuable meetings about what it is that we expect and, again, the Amer- icans are very interested in Australian companies because we are reliable, we’re a trusted five eyes partner, we have a high- quality product and we have a very good exchange rate. ■
But as the Minister for Defence Industry, what I’m interested in is that complementary skillset. With Aus- tralia developing its space capability, and it’s comple- mentary to my portfolio responsibilities, there will be a lot of transferable skillsets. So when we have a con- versation around defence industry capability, inevitably
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