PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull appears set to officially confirm that Bendigo-based manufacturer Thales has won a five-year $1 billion-plus contract to produce the Hawkei armoured vehicles.
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The contract, which Mr Turnbull and Defence Minister Marise Paine are expected to announce in Monegeetta this morning, will provide security to 300 workers employed in Bendigo.
Bendigo MP Lisa Chesters said the contract would see at least 1000 of the blast-proof vehicles manufactured for the Australia Defence Force.
She said it was a “brilliant” outcome for the city and would finally give peace of mind to the workers who facing uncertain futures as the Bushmaster project wound down.
“It secures and creates jobs at the Bendigo Thales site and will lock-in manufacturing for at least the next five years,” she said.
“I know a number of these workers and their families quite closely and they have been waiting hopeful that this contract would be signed.”
