On Point: Shadow defence industry minister analyses the status quo of the defence industry

With opportunities aplenty both locally and across the globe, businesses and the government need to work side by side to ensure the best possible outcome for all parties, as well as the Australian Defence Force and the economy.

Recently appointed as Australia's shadow defence industry minister, Matt Keogh's role is to develop the nation's sovereign capability through engagement with industry.

Keogh sat down at the Pacific 2019 International Maritime Exposition with Defence Connect podcast host Phil Tarrant to discuss his new position, Defence’s commitment to national interest above all else, what more needs to be done to support the industry moving forward, and his advice to SMEs about cultivating a good relationship with government and the opposition.

How do you think you are going in regards to engaging industry?

Keogh: Yeah, so defence industry as a portfolio, and defence as a portfolio at large, is one where there is a high degree of alignment. There's alignment between government and opposition. There's alignment between government and industry to make sure that we're doing everything in the national interest.

And I think we absolutely see that politically and we've seen that in engagement with industry as well. Everyone wants to make sure that we're putting the best foot forward both strategically and the way in which we give capability to our Defence Force.

And that's one of the great things I think about defence industry as a whole, is that these are people who are genuinely committed to making sure that our serving men and women have the best capability at their disposal in all circumstances.

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It's also a great employer of ex-service men and women as well.

And that's a fantastic thing to see that opportunity for people coming out of Defence to continue their involvement in Defence, through defence industry, and have a great career pathway post their service.

What are your priorities in the role?

Keogh: It's engagement with industry and it's understanding where the issues are.

So, there's a high degree of alignment. We absolutely agree with the government with their export strategy, we agree with government about the need for Australian industry content to be a key feature of the shipbuilding and all the other building projects that are happening and developing and bringing on further capability for the Defence Force.

I suppose my priorities are making sure that we actually hit those targets and that we're seeing that Australian industry content is not just about seeing an Australian company build something which creates jobs for Australians, and that's good, but it needs to be more than that.

It needs to make sure that we're seeing IP transfer into Australian entities. We're seeing that development of sovereign capability here and the opportunity for Australian businesses to not just support and be part of a supply chain for things being built in Australia, but also to work with those primes to be part of their global supply chain networks as well.

And to build that export opportunity. And it's actually a really important part of how we diversify the Australian economy, and from a Western Australian point of view, where we're a very resources dependent state and there's a lot of synergies between resources and defence industry.

Being able to diversify and have areas like defence industry, shipbuilding in particular from WA, but also supporting all the states around the Commonwealth.

What would be your message to SMEs about cultivating their relationships with the opposition? 

Keogh: My message to SMEs is that they should have a relationship with government and the opposition, and that there's an opportunity to always make sure that we're aware of issues and roadblocks that they're confronting.

And many SMEs have come to me with those issues because we've got an opportunity to work with them to help them. That's about the access that we're able to provide working with government as well.

And I suppose my other message to SMEs who are listening to these things and maybe not already in the defence industry spaces: think about it, get involved, make sure you reach out to government, look at the CDIC. Look at the other opportunities that are available.

Because there are great opportunities in defence industry and it's a great way to diversify your business offering and to grow what your business is doing. And I think sometimes people can be scared of the hurdles they need to jump over. And I think there's probably space for government to do a little bit more in trying to help some businesses jump over those hurdles.

The hurdles are there appropriately, but if we can encourage and engage more businesses to get in, to make sure that they've got the capability to get over those hurdles, then that only enhances our national interest, because the more businesses we have engaged, the better we're able to access their innovation, their technology, and improve the capability for our Defence Force.

To listen to the full podcast, please click here.