Australien — Skills, innovation and productivity critical to Defence

Invest­ment in skills, inno­va­tion and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty is crit­i­cal to the Fed­er­al Government’s plan for build­ing a more com­pet­i­tive defence indus­try in Aus­tralia, the Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel and Sci­ence Greg Com­bet told indus­try lead­ers in Can­ber­ra today. br/>
Under the Fed­er­al Government’s com­pre­hen­sive Defence Indus­try State­ment, Build­ing Defence Capa­bil­i­ty: A Pol­i­cy for a Smarter and More Agile Defence Indus­try Base, released today, the Gov­ern­ment will, over the next five years:

* Invest $292.8 mil­lion towards inno­va­tion, boost­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and skills devel­op­ment in the Aus­tralian defence industry. 

* Cre­ate more than 7,500 train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties under pro­grams such the Skilling Aus­tralian Defence Indus­try, Defence Tech­ni­cal Schol­ar­ships, Mas­ter of Sys­tems Inte­gra­tion, Mas­ters of Sys­tems Sup­port Engi­neer­ing and oth­er programs.

* Pro­vide up to $188.8 mil­lion in fund­ing towards the Defence innovation. 

Mr Com­bet said that the invest­ment in skills, inno­va­tion and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty under­scored the Government’s com­mit­ment to the future of Australia’s Defence industry.

“The Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to help­ing to build a more com­pet­i­tive and more pro­duc­tive defence indus­try in Aus­tralia,” Mr Com­bet said.

“That’s why we have out­lined a plan for invest­ment in skills, inno­va­tion and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty to help the indus­try devel­op its work­force and gain a com­pet­i­tive edge.”

Mr Com­bet said that skills and inno­va­tion was a key dri­ver of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and the Government’s invest­ment would bet­ter posi­tion Australia’s defence indus­try in the glob­al market.

“Australia’s defence indus­try can­not max­imise its pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and its com­pet­i­tive­ness with­out increas­ing its capac­i­ty for inven­tion and dis­cov­ery,” Mr Com­bet said.

“The Gov­ern­ment invest­ment in skills, inno­va­tion and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty will ensure the sec­tor has the best chance of com­pet­ing against oth­ers around the world.”

Media con­tacts:
Rod Hilton (Greg Com­bet): 02 6277 7620 or 0458 276 619
Defence Media Liai­son: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia