Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Brenden O’Connor is the Shadow Defense Minister. He said that if he was elected, the Labor part would need to be fully briefed about the AUKUS agreement before any final decisions were made or any guarantees were offered. He added that “We will do everything we possibly can to make sure that those assets are built in Australia. We need to deliver assets, first and foremost, but we need to do that by increasing local defense industry. There are some things we can't build here today, so we need to plan forward to ensure that we can build those assets in the future.”
Ben Mitchell is with the Adelaide company K-TIG. He said that his company was keen to invest in a high-tech welding facility to get a piece of the action on nuclear submarines but only if there was certainty from the next Australian government. He added that "If we found out that the subs were going to be built here, then ... we have an industry, we have a technology capability, and we have a willingness to invest. The numbers would be in the vicinity of 20 to 40 jobs that could be created out of a commitment such as that.”
Clive Williams is a defense researcher from the Australian National University. He said that considering the complexity of a nuclear submarine, taxpayers would get better value for the money spent if the submarines were constructed in the U.S. or the U.K. He added that “I think building at Osborne in South Australia is fraught with danger and could well be another defense procurement disaster. I'm sure that it'll wind up in cost overruns, changes to design, fiddling around with it, and so on. I think a much safer bet is to go with an overseas purchase.”
Williams said that the smaller U.K. Astute Class submarine would be a good choice for Australia’s navy. The submarines cannot come quickly enough for him amid tensions growing in the Indo-pacific. He added that “The last two Astute submarines are being built at the moment in the UK. So clearly, it'd be a good idea if we're going to have a follow-on order to get that in as soon as possible so that the production line remains in place. If we leased submarines, of course, we might be able to get them in a much shorter time frame ... it's possible, of course, that we might be able to work on something like integrated crews, having perhaps a number of our people on board American submarines or British submarines as a transition process.”
Mr. Dutton said that there was no doubt that there would be enhanced cooperation between Australia, the U.S., the U.K. and Japan moving forward. He added that “As the threat environment escalates here in the Indo Pacific ... we will see more, not less, being built here in Australia.”
The government is pursuing the nuclear submarine option after cancelling a contract last September with the French to construct a dozen diesel-electric submarines. It will likely cost as much as five and a half billion dollars in compensation to the French companies involved in the cancelled contract.
Mr. Dutton said that negotiations on compensation were ongoing, and the settlement would be made public when finalized.