The State Government will take ownership of the Keswick Army barracks in Adelaide's inner south within weeks after a land swap deal was finalised with the Commonwealth. It's one of three parcels of land changing hands under the agreement, as the Defence Minister tried to provide reassurance about the fate of a major ship building program at Osborne.
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00:00 Reason to smile after more than seven months of talks, the acting Prime Minister and Premier
00:06 inking a land swap between the federal and state governments.
00:10 A critical foundational step in allowing us to move down the pathway of building nuclear
00:17 powered submarines here.
00:19 The arrangement was first flagged when the Orcas submarine deal was detailed in March.
00:24 It will see the state give up land adjacent to the existing Osborne shipyard so facilities
00:29 to construct nuclear powered subs can be built.
00:33 In return the Commonwealth will hand over land at Smithfield, at Koltana outside of
00:37 Wyala plus the Keswick Army Barracks on Adelaide's fringe.
00:42 This is a big opportunity for housing, a thoughtful master plan development in a really strategic
00:47 location.
00:48 The Army will lease back Keswick for three years before development can start.
00:53 And there's already a pledge that 15% of the site will be kept for affordable housing.
00:58 The Property Council says the deal helps provide a pipeline of work.
01:03 There's not many sites on that sort of prime real estate so close to the city that provides
01:08 that significant opportunity.
01:11 Richard Marles taking the opportunity to tour a submarine amid lingering questions about
01:15 the Hunter class frigate program in the sheds next door.
01:19 He's ruled out one thing.
01:21 There's no prospect of building frigates in Scotland.
01:24 But can't yet say if nine will be built in Adelaide as originally planned with a review
01:29 into Navy's surface ships not set to be released until the new year.
01:33 I don't want to pre-empt the review so I'm not answering that part of your question.
01:38 But the part of the question around will there be continuous ship building here in Adelaide
01:42 indefinitely, the answer to that is absolutely yes.
01:45 Which means more workers are needed.
01:47 A new workforce plan also unveiled including a new skills and training academy at Osborne
01:53 designed for up to a thousand students a year from 2027.
01:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]