The Minister for Manufacturing, Exports and Trade Richard Dalla-Riva has announced the formation of a new Victorian Submarine Industry Project Team to grow the economic benefit to Victoria from submarine work.

 

Addressing leading defence industry companies at the Pacific 2012 International Maritime Conference in Sydney, Mr Dalla-Riva said the Submarine Industry Project Team would support the industry to secure a significant share of future defence contracts and to expand into global markets.

 

Mr Dalla-Riva said there would be a significant opportunity for Victoria to be involved in the Future Submarine Project, announced in the 2009 Defence White Paper.

 

"The Future Submarine Project includes the construction of 12 new submarines at an estimated cost of $30 billion," Mr Dalla-Riva said.

 

"The Victorian Coalition Government sees this as a national project which must draw upon the best manufacturing capabilities in Australia and many of those capabilities are located in Victoria."

 

The Submarine Industry Project Team will operate under the auspices of the Defence Council Victoria and will report to the Government by mid-2012.

 

It will focus on:

  • actions to support industry to win work in the national submarine industry, and
  • the potential for submarine industry technologies and solutions to be applied in other industry sectors important to the Victorian economy.
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Mr Dalla-Riva said Victoria's defence industry contributed $1.5 billion to the state economy each year.