To:
Hon Steven Marshall MP
Premier of South Australia
This annual report is to be presented to Parliament to meet the statutory reporting requirements of the Public Sector Act 2009 and the Public Finance and Audit Act 1987 and meets the requirements of Premier and Cabinet Circular PC013 Annual Reporting.
This report is verified to be accurate for the purposes of annual reporting to the Parliament of South Australia.
Submitted on behalf of the Defence SA by:
Richard Price
Chief Executive
Contents
Key strategies and their relationship to SA Government objectives
Agency programs and initiatives and their effectiveness and efficiency
Legislation administered by the agency
Other agencies related to this agency (within the Minister’s area/s of responsibility)
Employment opportunity programs
Agency performance management and development systems
Work health, safety and return to work programs of the agency and their effectiveness
Work health and safety and return to work performance
Strategies implemented to control and prevent fraud
Executive employment in the agency
Financial performance of the agency
Section B: Reporting required under any other act or regulation
Reporting required under the Carers’ Recognition Act 2005
Section C: Reporting of public complaints as requested by the Ombudsman
Summary of complaints by subject
Appendix: Audited financial statements 2017-18
Section A: Reporting required under the Public Sector Act 2009, the Public Sector Regulations 2010 and the Public Finance and Audit Act 1987
Agency purpose or role
Defence SA is South Australia’s lead government agency for all defence related matters.
The agency’s mission is to grow the defence industry and strengthen the Australian Defence Force’s presence in the state. Working closely with defence and industry, Defence SA targets investment and expansion opportunities, drives and supports the delivery of major defence projects and facilities, and pursues the location of additional Defence units and capabilities in the state.
Defence SA aims to support the Australian Government’s strategic defence policy. This is through increased local industry participation, ensuring that a highly skilled, industry-ready workforce is in place, and the necessary infrastructure exists to underpin defence projects.
Defence SA is working towards capturing further defence-related work opportunities for South Australian businesses in the shipbuilding, cyber and systems, space and defence science and research domains.
The South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC) was launched in September 2017. This marked the creation of the nation’s first dedicated centre to grow the local space economy and create future high-tech jobs.
The Defence SA Advisory Board (the Board) provides high-level strategic and policy advice. This promotes the growth of Defence and defence industries. The Board also advocates on behalf of the state on defence and defence industries issues.
Objectives
- Advocacy and support: in collaboration with the Australian Government, Defence and industry, Defence SA works to ensure the required workforce, skills, and infrastructure are available to capitalise on the emerging defence industry opportunities.
- Shipbuilding: to ensure South Australia maintains its position as the nation’s centre for warship and submarine building and sustainment.
- Cyber and systems: to position South Australia as a centre of excellence for cyber capability and processing, exploiting and disseminating intelligence.
- Defence science and research: to position South Australia as a national leader in developing intellectual property.
- Space: to position South Australia as the nation’s space industry centre.
Key strategies and their relationship to SA Government objectives
| Key strategy | SA Government objective |
| Creating a sustainable and export-ready defence industry. | The South Australian Government is focussed on creating more jobs for South Australians. |
| Developing South Australia’s space ecosystem. | The South Australian Government is committed to developing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship through growth industries including space. |
| Attraction of additional defence companies to South Australia and support of sustainable defence industry growth. | The South Australian Government is creating an environment where businesses from emerging industries, including defence and space, can invest, expand and create more jobs. |
| Ensuring South Australia is able to meet the workforce and skills demands of the defence industry to deliver major Defence projects. | The South Australian Government is committed to ensuring South Australians have the skills and are job-ready for key growth industries including defence. |
Agency programs and initiatives and their effectiveness and efficiency
| Program name | Indicators of performance/effectiveness/efficiency | Outcome for South Australia |
| Investment attraction and industry development | In 2017-18, Defence SA provided support to Becker Helicopters to establish a new operating base in Whyalla. This will create 80 jobs and train 100-200 international students.
Defence SA provided support to Raytheon Australia to establish their Centre for Joint Integration in South Australia. This will create over 350 new FTE positions by 2028. With support from the Defence SA Advisory Board, Defence SA continued its advocacy campaign. This aims to maximise Australian industry participation, develop sovereign industrial capability and ensure the creation of the highly-skilled workforce required for future maritime programs. In 2017-18, Defence SA hosted nine high profile diplomatic and industry delegations. This included those in relation to shipbuilding projects. These visits aim to maximise South Australian supply chain opportunities associated with the Future Submarine, Future Frigate and Offshore Patrol Vessel programs. In August 2017, Defence SA hosted the third Defence SA Cyber Ready Forum. The forum focussed on cyber security requirements for small to medium enterprises and ensuring they are ready to undertake Defence opportunities. The event was attended by 92 participants from government and industry. In September 2017, Defence SA led the state’s participation at the Pacific International Maritime Exposition. The event showcased South Australia’s maritime capabilities. It also created opportunities for collaboration in the maritime sector. Participants on the Defence State stand included 21 local industry participants, four universities and TAFE SA. This was a 17% increase in participation from the previous event in 2015. |
Defence SA’s industry attraction and industry development activities support the creation of new jobs and a highly-skilled workforce.
The development of the defence industry is crucial to the state’s transition to a high-tech advanced manufacturing economy. |
| South Australian Space Industry Centre | The South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC) was launched in September 2017.This was prior to the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) that was hosted in Adelaide.
The SASIC exhibition stand at the IAC included 14 local industry participants, three government organisations and four educational institutes. The state continued to advocate for the creation of a national space agency. This effort was rewarded in September 2017 when the Australian Government announced that an Australian Space Agency would be created from 1 July 2018. In September 2017, the South Australian Government launched the $4 million Space Innovation Fund. The Fund incorporates space scholarships and the space incubator and accelerator programs. In May 2018, five South Australians were awarded scholarships to undertake further overseas study. The space incubator program will commence in 2018-19 after UniSA was selected to administer the program. South Australia signed three international collaboration agreements with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), German Space Agency (DLR) and the UAE Space Agency. Other opportunities were explored with NASA, the French Space Agency (CNES), Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and other international private companies and research agencies. The South Australian Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ACT and Northern Territory Governments for collaboration in the space industry. In 2017-18, SASIC hosted two South Australia Space forums. The April 2018 forum achieved a record attendance of more than 300 participants. |
The space industry is a high-value, high-growth sector with the potential to create jobs and opportunities for South Australian workers.
International collaboration is a key activity in developing the industry. The Space Innovation Fund supports the development of young South Australian space entrepreneurs. |
| Defence Innovation Partnership | In January 2018, the Defence Innovation Partnership was formalised. The Partnership is an agreement between the South Australian Government, Defence Science and Technology and the state’s three universities – University of South Australia, Adelaide University and Flinders University.
A key component of the Defence Innovation Partnership is the Collaborative Research Grants program. In June 2018, $600,000 in grants were awarded to the first round of recipients. Four projects were funded involving researchers from South Australia who will partner with researchers and industry from Australia and around the world. They will deliver research projects that are relevant to supporting the Australian Defence Force. |
The Defence Innovation Partnership was established to facilitate research and development collaboration. It will also create jobs and economic growth in South Australia. |
| Skills and workforce development | Defence SA is leading a four-year whole-of-government Workforce and Skills Strategy. The strategy will provide a framework for engaging collaboratively with the Australian Government, industry and educational institutions to promote the opportunities that exist. It will also provide responsive and meaningful curriculum and qualifications to those who aspire to join the industry. | South Australian workers are able to take advantage of the Defence projects that are happening in the state. This includes $89 billion of naval shipbuilding programs. |
| Techport Australia | In May 2017, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to transfer the state-owned Techport and its assets to the Australian Government for $230 million.
Tranches 1 and 2 of the transfer were completed in 2017-18. This enabled the Australian Government to commence infrastructure construction at the shipyard ready for future ship and submarine builds. The shipyard construction project will create up to 600 loc |