by Chris Becker
With the demise of the Australian manufacturing industry, particularly automotive, comes two dueling band of military-industrial complex lobbyists trying to lap up the scraps in Victoria and Queensland.
First, rebadged Holdens in Melbourne with 8 wheels, via CarAdvice:
The Victorian state government and defence company BAE Systems want to build a fleet of next-generation military vehicles at the former Holden site in Melbourne’s inner-west.
Victoria’s Andrews government has signed a Heads of Agreement with the British multinational defence company, proposing to make and maintain 225 new Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles and by extension creating what it claims to be thousands of manufacturing jobs – albeit with indeterminate terms.
The other group is Rheinmetall from Germany, which wants to build them in Queensland. From the ABC:
Queensland’s Palaszczuk Government has backed Rheinmetall Defence’s bid to build a different vehicle, the eight-wheel-drive Boxer CRV, in that state.
The Queensland Government and Queensland-based federal MP Jane Prentice have been lobbying Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the contract.
Rheinmetall Defence recently told the ABC’s AM program the Boxer CRV had superior safety over other similar armed vehicles.
Pretty strong lobbying! And equally strong politicking with the Victorian Labor government:
The state government’s pitch was part of a wider announcement from BAE Systems Australia regarding its plan to make a ‘defence hub’ at the Fishermans Bend site, to be “the biggest of its type in the nation”.
Victorian defence companies would get a large share of the work, with BAE Systems agreeing to partner with Marand, MOOG Australia, Motec, AME Systems, RUAG Australia, DVR Engineering and APV to build vehicle components. Some of these suppliers worked with Ford, Holden and/or Toyota making cars here.
Victoria’s defence sector is claimed as being worth $8 billion to the local economy every year, and is made up of about 20,000 people and 400 businesses.
The hub will apparently enable up to 1000 engineers and highly skilled technicians to “design, develop, deliver and maintain” new defence platforms and systems for the Australian Defence Force. More than 200 people will be employed during the build phase of the LAND 400 program, it says.
Oddly, the state government claimed that: “the LAND 400 Phase Two project is worth around $5 billion and would create more than 2000 manufacturing and supply chain jobs in Victoria”. Hmm.
Yes very odd, no very Trump-like!
While not in the realm of SA’s domestic submarine project that looks set to waste tens of billions of dollars, it doesn’t surprise me that there’s been next to no analysis on the feasibility of domestic construction vs. foreign purchase, or other factors like choosing a system on political grounds instead of strategic ones for the end-users. Or as the US military-industrial complex, capturing and nursing big wedges of the defence budget on big ticket items at the expense of key bottom-line materiel like bullets and personal armor protection.
Making your own defence equipment, from a macro strategic view, does makes sense and this will likely overshadow any reasoned debate over these concerns.
Of course, the other question is why not electric cars instead? You know, the future of automobile production in the 21st century. Oh. Not much lobby money and post-political career employment in the defense industry in that niche.