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The Victorian government is pushing for a larger slice of the defence industry pie after announcing several key agreements during the recent Indo Pacific 2025 Expo.
Victorian Minister for Industry and Advanced Manufacturing, Colin Brooks, spoke with industry representatives during the recent Indo Pacific 2025 International Maritime Exposition in Sydney last week.
During the trade show, the Victorian government announced a new memorandum of understanding with HII and Babcock’s joint venture H&B Defence to strengthen Victoria’s defence industrial base, workforce and global supply chain integration.
The agreement included intention to partner with education and training providers, support for Victorian businesses to meet US and UK shipbuilding requirements, expanding the state’s STEM talent pipeline and attract new investment to grow Victoria’s industrial base and global competitiveness.
In reference to recent defence industry announcements made for Western Australia and South Australia, Minister Brooks confirmed that Victoria was looking to be more competitive in the domestic defence industry environment.
“I think in a long-term sense, it’s about time Victoria was in the game and over the last year in my role as industry minister, we have made an absolute effort to make sure that we were boosting our connections into the defence sector and growing our defence industry in Victoria,” he said.
“The announcement with H&B Defence is a great first step about boosting our supply chain opportunities, research and development opportunities. This is a big moment for Victoria and it’s going to continue to grow.
“I think the great asset that we’ve got in Victoria that I see on workshop floors everywhere I go is the people who used to work in the auto industry who have transitioned over to the whole range of defence industry supply chain and the primes in Victoria.
“Tapping into that capability is a great asset … We have got that advantage, one of the biggest industrial bases in the country, great world-class universities. So as the defence uplift effort starts to really get up a head of steam and people start to realise that this is going to need to be a whole-of-nation effort.
“Victoria has one of the most highly skilled workforces in the country … We’re able to attract some of these big players to Victoria, particularly for our technical research and development skill sets.”
Also, during the show, the Victorian government also announced a memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce to bolster Victoria’s defence industry skills, supply chain and innovation.
Under the agreement, the state will work with Rolls-Royce to facilitate supply chain opportunities for Victorian companies and support Victoria’s contribution to AUKUS Pillars 1 and 2, developing the workforce’s skills and technology.
“I think Rolls-Royce recognised the need for technical expertise as part of the AUKUS program in Australia, in-country, and we’re very keen to work with them in ways of Victoria can help assist in that sort of technical aspect of the work that’s going to need to be done in terms of the nuclear program,” Minister Brooks said.
“This is about building the technical expertise … Utilising highly skilled workforce and graduates coming out of our universities to support the program, giving it the technical expertise that it’s going to need.
“Rolls-Royce has got decades of experience in this program in the UK and they understand what’s needed on the ground to deliver these sorts of programs.”
