More Defence Manufacturing Heads Off-Shore

16 Mar 09

The Federal Opposition has accused the Rudd Government of endangering Australian jobs by excluding a local company from a lucrative defence contract.

The Government is giving $40 million to a United States defence project to develop light armoured vehicles.

However, Opposition spokesman Bob Baldwin said Victorian company Thales, that builds the "Bushmaster" vehicle, should have been given an opportunity to be part of the project.

"The Bushmaster is already a proven vehicle, the baby Bushmaster would have done exactly the work that was required, but they weren't even given the opportunity to tender for the work," Baldwin said.

Mr Baldwin said the decision would cost local jobs in favour of a project that is being developed in the US.

He said this was "to the exclusion of Australian manufacturing industry" adding this was a major disappointment for industry.

"It's not the $40 million and the nine prototypes, the fact is, there are 1300 of these vehicles to be built, in excess of $1 billion and that means for Bendigo, the loss of over 300 jobs," Baldwin said.

Thales' boasts expertise across protected mobility vehicles and integrated communications for defence, aerospace and security industries.

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