What is Thales and why might it cut Bendigo jobs? Explainer

But what is Thales, and what are the jobs that might be lost?

Let's take a look at this Bendigo success story.

Thales Australia is one arm of a transnational manufacturer working on everything from cyber security to military hardware.

It runs a Bendigo factory famous for building Bushmasters - the heavily armoured military vehicles that have served the Australian Defence Force worldwide including warzones like Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Bushmasters are the same people movers that the Australian government has been donating to Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders, much to the delight of special forces soldiers who speak exceptionally highly of them.

Thales also builds Bushmasters' baby sisters Hawkeis - the smaller heavily armoured vehicles that have been rolling off Bendigo production lines in recent years.

Bendigo has been home to defence manufacturing for 70 years and played a pivotal role making munitions during World War Two.

It is where many Bendigo woman entered the workforce for the first time as war time employment shortages bit.

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Its Finn Street, North Bendigo ordnance factory has made a wide range of things under different owners over the years.

Thales is the latest group to harness the factory and its highly skilled workforce.

Thales is going through a round of redundancies for up to 49 jobs (and plans not to fill two extra vacancies).

It has told staff it does not have the work for them as building contracts linked to 1100 Hawkeis for Australia and 43 Bushmasters for New Zealand draw to a close.

That has angered federal member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters, who feels blindsided after lobbying hard for her government to lock in a contract for 79 extra Bushmasters.

She says Thales approached her last year during the federal election campaign about its concerns over the future of the site.

"We've been able to secure that [project] and thought we had done enough. Now we hear there are more job losses, more redundancies that the company has got to look for, " Ms Chesters told the Advertiser.

Thales has told staff the project will secure work for Bendigo's factory until late 2025 but is not enough to solve all employment woes, according to a letter obtained by this masthead.

"While this project has commenced and fabrications of the first hulls will commence in October, the workforce required to deliver this work is much less than we have on site today," the company's protected vehicles director Ben Kelly said in the letter to staff.

Thales is in the middle of consultations with staff on redundancies.

It would prefer the redundancies to be voluntary but has left the door open to non-voluntary job cuts.

The Advertiser understands about 30 people may be open to voluntary redundancies so far.

That could leave a shortfall, which Ms Chesters has said would be a deeply concerning prospect.

Thales' sales teams have been chasing multiple potential opportunities which are yet to pan out, Mr Kelly has told staff.

Even if a contract could be secured tomorrow, the company would still have challenges, he said in his letter.

"As with all Defence programs we all know how competitive they are and they all come with lengthy lead times before a win is announced and then industrialised," he wrote.

Mr Kelly told staff Thales was committed to working openly and transparently with stakeholders in unions, the Australian Defence Force and the federal government on workforce changes.

That included working with local businesses and Lisa Chesters' office to find new jobs for people, Mr Kelly said.

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