Portfolio — 23 March 2026

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Mr Marles, used question time on 23 March to frame AUKUS as both a generational capability milestone and a domestic industrial argument — describing the program as the biggest leap in Australia's military capability in more than a century and the largest industrial project in the country's history, supporting 20,000 jobs [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s232].

The centrepiece of his remarks was the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia, which the government is positioning as the physical expression of the AUKUS commitment: sustaining Collins class submarines, building Hunter class frigates, and ultimately constructing future nuclear-powered submarines, with steel to be cut on those vessels by the end of the decade and peak employment at the site projected to exceed 7,000 workers.

The government has committed $30 billion to the shipyard over coming decades, anchored by a $3.9 billion downpayment announced jointly by the Prime Minister and South Australian Premier Malinauskas just over a month prior [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s232]. Mr Marles sharpened the political contrast directly, contrasting Labor's delivery of the shipyard as a cornerstone of the South Australian economy with what he described as the coalition's record of arguing South Australians could not build a canoe and seeking to move future submarine construction offshore — a reference to the now-cancelled Attack class program under the previous government [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s232].

The remarks consolidate a consistent ministerial line linking AUKUS delivery to sovereign industrial capability and South Australian economic identity, with the $3.9 billion downpayment providing a recent concrete anchor for the broader $30 billion commitment narrative.