Plan needed to protect shipbuilding jobs

Australia's shipbuilding jobs need to be protected through a national plan, a defence industry lobby group has argued.

The Australian Made Defence was responding to a decision to nominate a Spanish company as the preferred supplier for two Australian Navy supply ships, a project expected to create up to 3000 jobs.

"A national shipbuilding plan will recognise that the billions of taxpayers dollars the government spends on shipbuilding are better invested in Australia, not used to prop-up the economies of other nations," spokesman Chris Burns said on Thursday.