If you asked, “Don’t we already have an Australian Maritime College?” you are spot on. We do. It is in Tasmania and it is doing world-leading research and training already.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne is effectively spending $25 million of your money on the letter T.

That the federal government is putting $25 million (with many millions more to come) into this duplication should infuriate Tasmanians and galvanise its members of parliament.

It is an appalling duplication of what is already in Tasmania: a decision seemingly made on Mr Pyne’s political needs.

South Australia can hardly keep the lights on and businesses in droves are reconsidering whether they want to be based in the state.

Coalition governments are on the nose and losing a lot of their traditional supporter base to rival parties.

So one can understand the political boost for Mr Pyne and his Coalition colleagues in making the announcement for South Australia.

However, South Australia has already been propped up by defence promises that it will build $50 billion of new submarines in the early 2020s and $30 billion in Future Frigates in 2020.

That is not to mention next year’s $3 billion Offshore Patrol Vessels project (shared with Western Australia), which Tasmania missed out on.

When you factor in how little federal money is spent on defence in Tasmania, the decision is even more infuriating to ignore an institution that not only already exists but has invested in increasing its attractiveness for defence spending.

The AMC last month put a proposal to the state government to develop a statewide defence strategy, which would feed into the national industry.

This is a slap in the face for Tasmanian Coalition MPs who advocated for the AMC to be part of the national defence strategy.

Tasmanian Liberal Senator David Bushby said the AMC was ideally placed to take advantage of defence research and contracts.

“We have the capabilities, whether its through small-to-medium enterprises or the AMC that can contribute to the defence sector and provide jobs to Northern Tasmania,” he said on March 14.

Was anyone listening?

Given Tasmania has no members in the House of Representatives, perhaps the Coalition believes any political pain will not be as keenly felt here? Perhaps it is punishment?

Mr Pyne announced tenders for the college would open shortly with the institution expected to start by January 2018.

He countered accusations of political favouritism by saying the new college would have to work closely with the AMC, while students would be also studying at a Brisbane university or TAFE at Shepparton or Bunbury.

Tasmania has long made a reasonable claim for more defence spending in the state.

Reasonable because no one is asking for major troop bases or the relocation of Navy fleets or stationing air command at Launceston Airport.

But a greater slice of the defence spend is clearly justifiable in training and research – especially when it is already occurring.