The Morrison Government has announced a $1 billion investment package to boost Australia\u2019s defence industry and support thousands of jobs across the country.
\nThe package is directed towards nationwide projects and jobs across Australia including:<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the package is estimated to support around 4,000 jobs across Australia and help many small and medium sized businesses in the defence-industry supply chain. The Morrison Government has announced a $1 billion investment package to boost Australia\u2019s defence industry and support thousands of jobs across the country. The package is directed towards nationwide projects and jobs across Australia including: Increasing the employment of ADF Reservists who have lost their civilian income, with an allocation of up to an extra … Continue reading “$1B To Accelerate Defence Initiatives In COVID-19 Recovery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cLike much of the economy, our local defence industry is doing it tough because of COVID-19. This is especially so for small and medium sized businesses, that are critical to jobs,\u201d Prime Minister Morrison said.
\n\u201cSupporting our defence industry is all part of our JobMaker plan \u2013 especially high-paying, high-skilled jobs that ensure we are supporting a robust, resilient and internationally competitive defence industry. We want to build our sovereign industrial capabilities and Australian workforce to keep our people safe.\u201d
\n\u201cWe will also support our ADF members and families, particularly any Reservists who are doing it tough because of COVID-19.\u201d
\nThe announcement was made at Canberra-based company, DATAPOD (Australia), which has been awarded a two-year, $20 million contract.
\nThe Australian owned company will provide Defence with portable, containerised data systems which can be rapidly deployed by sea, air or road. By bringing forward this acquisition, we will help to protect up to 27 direct and up to 80 supply chain jobs.
\nMinister for Defence, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC said supporting Australian defence industry is crucial to the economy\u2019s recovery.
\n\u201cAlready we\u2019ve fast-tracked a range of capability, infrastructure, skilling and workforce initiatives over the next two years. This includes rolling out a number of Defence estate works tenders as part of Defence\u2019s economic stimulus initiative package, that will run over the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years,\u201d Minister Reynolds said.
\n\u201cOver $11 billion has already been provided in early payment for invoices and work to improve or sustain industry capacity for the delivery of critical supplies.”
\n\u201cWe\u2019re getting on with the job of delivering critical capability outcomes to Army, Air Force and Navy, as well as continuing to support our personnel, including ADF Reserve members.\u201d
\nDefence will retain a great level of agility to phase and adjust expenditure of the initiatives to ensure they are affordable and remain suitable over the next two years.
\nMinister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said it\u2019s now more important than ever to back Australian businesses and create more Australian jobs.
\n\u201cWe want to ensure defence industry continues to provide vital supply chains to develop and maintain defence capabilities, as we look at opportunities to accelerate projects across Australia,\u201d Minister Price said.
\n\u201cThese projects will support and grow the 70,000-strong workforce in defence industry supply chains and those benefiting from our investment in defence.
\n\u201cWe are committed to supporting small and medium sized enterprises across Australian defence industry, with programs that will support regional areas, including bushfire affected communities.\u201d
\nFurther details of individual initiatives will be approved and announced shortly. Further information regarding Defence\u2019s response to COVID-19 in supporting defence industry can be accessed at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.defence.gov.au\/covid-19\/defence-industry\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"