The State Government will today host a Summit to discuss its submission to the Defence White Paper on industry policy.

The Summit will be held in the House of Assembly Chamber at Parliament House from 9am to 12.30pm. It will be opened by Premier Jay Weatherill and hosted by the Minister for Defence Industries Martin Hamilton-Smith.

More than 100 stakeholder groups have registered their interest from defence industry, unions, academia and local government.

Key speakers will include Dr Andrew Davies from the Defence White Paper Expert Panel, Professor Barry Burgan from Bond University, Chris Burns from the Defence Teaming Centre, Professor Gőran Roos from the Economic Development Board, the former Director of ASC Dr Hans J Ohff, John Camillo from the AMWU, Nigel McBride from Business SA and Wendy Campana from the Local Government Association, among others.

Mr Hamilton-Smith said the synopsis of the State Government’s draft submission to the Defence White Paper will form the platform for discussion.

“The South Australian Government is very pleased to provide an opportunity for the State’s business and academic community to contribute to its submission.

“Feedback and comments contributed by attendees at the South Australian Government Defence Industry Policy Summit will be compiled and considered as final input into the State’s submission, which will be approved by Cabinet and submitted on 29 October.

The Summit coincides with the release of a report commissioned by the South Australian Economic Development Board that weighs up all the costs of building submarines at home and overseas.

“This report highlights that over the 40 year life of the project, the total impact on GDP would be $8.2 billion if the submarines were built at home and $29 billion if they were built overseas – a difference of more than $20 billion,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.

“The report found that by building submarines locally, it would save 3000 South Australian jobs every year over the 40 year life of the project.”