The Hodgman Liberal Government continues to be an active supporter of the bid to win the tender to build a new fleet of Pacific Patrol Boats in Tasmania.

Tasmania has the engineering, manufacturing and system integration expertise to complete this $600 million project over several years.

Our bid to win this tender is led by the TasPac Maritime Group (TPMG) – made up of its joint venture partners ThysseKrupp Marine Systems Australia (TKSMA) and UGL Engineering with vessel construction by Incat and Haywards Steel.

TasPac is confident that it has brought together outstanding talents in this field to produce quality boats at the best price and which are ideal for their designated use and they report that there has been encouraging feedback on the bid.

The Tasmanian stand features a fully operating ships navigation simulator and a detailed scale model of the proposed 39-metre Taspac Pacific Patrol Boat vessel.

Tasmanian firms represented at the Pacific 2015 Expo are Incat Tasmania, Liferaft Systems Australia, CBG Systems, Taylor Brothers, Pivot Maritime International, Muir Windlasses and Australian Maritime College.

Pivot Maritime International has set up a magnificent 3D fully interactive model of the Taspac patrol boat on the simulator so that visitors to the Tasmanian stand can actually steer the vessel into Fiji’s Suva Harbour.

As the only comprehensive international expo of its kind in Australia, Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, the Pacific 2015 Expo provides a showcase for commercial maritime and naval defence industries to promote their capabilities to decision makers from around the world.

With displays by more than 400 participating exhibitor global companies the Expo is expected to attract over 10,000 visitors and as well as military and government delegations from about 30 countries.

I was delighted to see the quality and innovation of the Tasmanian product stand out in the international market place and congratulated the companies for committing significant resources of their own to be at Pacific 2015 Expo.
Adam Brooks, Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Trade