Portfolio — 29 March 2026

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Rishworth, announced BAE Systems Australia as a new industry partner in the Breaking Barriers: Women in Trades and Tech project, adding a major defence contractor to a program previously anchored by the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union [TA-260329-dewr-037e25860f1b]. The announcement is backed by $4.9 million under the Building Women's Careers Program and signals a deliberate push to channel the project's workforce-inclusion work into the defence manufacturing pipeline specifically — a sector with sustained labour demand given Australia's current naval and defence procurement commitments.

The project has operated since March 2025 across two streams. Breaking Barriers in Industry works directly with employers on workplace culture, flexible shift arrangements, and gender-inclusive action plans. Breaking Barriers in Training partners with TAFEs and Group Training Organisations to deliver apprenticeships and technical pathways for women.

The program has reached over 30,000 workers to date, a scale that positions this announcement as an expansion of an established delivery vehicle rather than a new initiative.

Over the two-year partnership, BAE Systems Australia and the AMWU will jointly expand training and skills support, including engineering short courses, site tours, and workplace experience programs [TA-260329-dewr-037e25860f1b]. The pairing of a major defence prime with the peak manufacturing union as co-delivery partners is the structural centrepiece of today's announcement — the minister framed it explicitly as a model of what government, industry, and unions can achieve together.

Also released alongside the announcement is the 2025 Women's Voices from the Floor report, which documents barriers to participation and workplace solutions drawn from the program's existing cohort. The report adds an evidence layer to the initiative and provides a public record against which the partnership's two-year outcomes can be measured.

The minister's framing tied employment and skills outcomes directly to defence manufacturing careers, characterising them as offering long-term, well-paid prospects for women. That cross-portfolio signal — connecting workforce participation policy to the defence industry workforce pipeline — is the key policy message in today's release.