There's hope for Australian workers yet, still some work in the pipeline if management can get their act together, apparently. I say send the work overseas as our track record is dismal.
Quote previous news about Mirabella placement on the SCA board:
The reality, in a cycle repeated over decades, is the military-industrial complex produces gold-plated, high-maintenance products that never match hype and cost twice as much as they need to.
Whatever one may think of Mirabella, she is an economic dry and does not shirk the dirty work of confronting spendthrift bureaucrats, military brass and trade unions, all of whom have treated the Australian Submarine Corporation and the Defence Materiel Organisation as a giant honey pot.
Both organisations are impervious to competence. In 2011, the Labor government commissioned an audit of the navy's procurement process. It revealed a shambolic labyrinth that produced cost blow-outs and chronic delays. That same year, the navy received an SOS after cyclone Yasi smashed Queensland but was unable to deploy a single ship. All three of its large amphibious ships were out of service and two of them were so unseaworthy they never returned to service.
At the same time, the navy also had to scrap six large landing craft before they were even used, at a cost of $40 million, because they could not be loaded onto the motherships they had been bought for.
The opposition defence spokesman at the time, David Johnston, described all this as ''an absolute walking, living, breathing example of incompetence''. He is now Defence Minister, responsible for this fleet of foolishness.
Quote current news: Senator Johnston said the replenishment ships would be built overseas because Australia had "very limited capacity" to build such large vessels.
The government confirmed that it would use an Australian company to construct 20 replacement patrol boats.
He also foreshadowed that construction of eight future frigates could be awarded to an overseas company, but the government's preference was for the ships to be built in Australia.
Senator Johnston said the government intended to review Australia's shipbuilding capabilities, but warned the industry that it had to compete seriously with offshore companies.
On the future frigates he said "we want to see the ships built in Australia".
"But if we can't get the level of productivity to a reasonable standard, to a world parity standard then the government will be left with no alternative but to build them overseas," he said.
