MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr THISTLETHWAITE (Kingsford Smith—Assistant Minister for Immigration and Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade) (15:13): I thank the member for Wentworth for putting this important issue on the agenda, because it does give me an opportunity to provide an update on the AUKUS submarine program, consistent with our approach of providing maximum transparency and accountability to the Australian people for what will be the largest and most complex industrial manufacturing program ever undertaken in our nation, and, importantly, the largest-ever capability uplift in the Australian Defence Force, to ensure that we keep Australians safe into the future.

We live in an era of increasingly contested space and less predictability in our region, the Indo-Pacific. The war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East and the use of coercive tactics have all put huge pressure on the international rules and norms that nations like Australia have relied upon in the past for our security and certainty. These norms and these rules are now under increasing threat.

This was a point that was identified in the two defence strategic plans that have been outlined by our government since we came to office in 2024 and 2026. The National defence strategy confirms and reaffirms that Australia's security depends on strong partnerships and alliances and the importance of a strategy of denial to deter any aggression towards Australia into the future.

At the apex of that strategy, which our government has adopted based on the independent advice of the reviewers under the Defence strategic review, is the acquisition of nuclear-propelled conventionally armed submarines. That is the key to our strategy of deterrence within our region. This capability upgrade is required to meet the increased security challenge that our nation will face into the future.

So our government has decided that we should acquire the best submarine capability possible to keep an island nation like Australia, which relies upon shipping for our commerce and international trade as an important part of our economy, safe into the future and, most importantly, to keep Australians safe. That has to be the No. 1 objective of any Australian government—to keep Australians safe.

Delivering AUKUS will help us meet that commitment of keeping Australians safe. Nuclear-propelled conventionally armed submarines are the best capability possible for Australia to acquire. Nuclear propelled submarines have a longer range and endurance and greater stealth, which means that they can go undetected for longer periods of time than diesel electric submarines, which simply cannot match those same capabilities.

Now, to acquire this capability, the defence minister and the defence department have worked on a plan to acquire this technology as quickly as possible to ensure that there are no capability gaps on Collins class subs coming to the end of their life and when we acquire the nuclear propelled technology. That plan has been publicly announced; it's available for any Australian to see.

It was announced by the Prime Minister in March 2023, with the American president and the UK prime minister, in San Diego, and it outlines our multiphase plan to acquire this technology into the future, the stages that we will undertake and how we will do it. It is all publicly released. In fact, it's available on the Australian Submarine Agency website.

The plan has begun. We've begun the phases of development and delivery of the AUKUS plan. Phase 1 is the Submarine Rotational Force-West.

This is where we start to train with the United States Navy and the UK navy on familiarity with the technology that Australia will acquire in future years. This required some very large infrastructure upgrades to the base in the south of Perth at Garden Island. Those infrastructure upgrades have been completed.

When I was the assistant defence minister and I had responsibility for the Defence estate, I visited Garden Island on many occasions to see that work being undertaken to ensure that we had the wharf space and that we had the facilities to cater for the Virginia class and Astute class submarines rotating through Australia and training with our Navy on a regular basis.

That has been completed and those rotations are beginning to take place. The second phase of the AUKUS optimal pathway is the purchase of three Virginia class submarines in the early 2030s. These will be sovereign Australian submarines commanded by the Royal Australian Navy.

This program was approved, importantly, by the US Congress in December 2023. So Australia has the approval to acquire the Virginia class capability into the future. A further announcement was made about that on the weekend by the defence minister.

Finally, Phase 3 is Australia acquiring the capability to construct these important, most complex submarines, which will add to our sovereign manufacturing capability. When we talk about a Future Made in Australia, there is no greater example of a Future Made in Australia than our nation acquiring the capability and the means to manufacture our own conventionally armed nuclear-propelled submarines right here in Australia at the Osborne shipyards in Adelaide—a project that will create 20,000 jobs in numerous industries across our country, providing us with a great technology and capability uplift that we've never seen in our Defence Force in the past.

We'll be able to build those submarines based on the UK Astute class design but incorporating the best technology that the US submarine technology agency has on offer. Work has already commenced on constructing that shipyard to ensure that we have that capability into the future. All of this is backed and underpinned by an extension of the Collins class diesel-powered submarines that we have at the moment, and I can tell you that that work has commenced.

I've been down to the Osborne shipyards, and I've seen firsthand the work that is commencing on the extension of the lifetime of the Collins class submarines, and they will extend well into the period in which we acquire the Virginia class American technology of the three submarines so that there is no capability gap that Australia has when it comes to our undersea capability and defending the Australian people should something go wrong.

Then, on the weekend, the defence minister, at the IISS Shangri-la Dialogue, again, with his UK and United States counterparts, announced the finalisation of the Submarine Rotational Force-West implementation arrangements, which are very important—again, another step in delivery of the project—and the type of Virginia class submarines that we will acquire three of in the early 2030s.

They will be in-service submarines from the same block of manufacturing out of the shipyards in the United States. This is the most sensible and indeed the optimal pathway that our nation should adopt to acquire this technology for a number of reasons. Firstly, it ensures consistency.

That is important when it comes to training the Australian Defence Force to operate those submarines. If we have the same three block types of submarines then it ensures consistency in the training of our submariners to operate those submarines, and that is what we are going for—consistency to ensure that we can deliver the program. It also ensures maintenance consistency as well, and having the correct maintenance program to keep those submarines in the water for as long as possible will be important in reducing costs to the program.

We'll be ensuring that we're not operating four different classes of submarines through the life of this project. We wouldn't have the Collins class and two types of Virginia classes before we acquired the SSN-AUKUS technology manufactured in Australia. Instead, we will have three classes—Collins, consistency when it comes to Virginia class and then our own manufacturing capability.

I would point out that the Virginia class' in-service type is a massive upgrade in capability for Australia. We are still acquiring an upgrade in capability. In terms of transparency, the Australian Submarine Agency publish a corporate plan, and they provide an annual report to the parliament that ensures the Australian people know about the decisions that we are making in respect of delivering that optimal pathway and ensuring, most importantly, the principal objective of this government, keeping the Australian people safe into the future.