Without any of the usual fanfare that accompanies major Defence contracts, the Albanese Government has just announced another $3B into the US submarine industrial base, in addition to the U$4.7B taxpayers' money already committed.
On December 1, 2023, the US Defence Security Co-operation Agency posted an announcement on its website that, over the next three years, Australia is going to tip another $3B of Australian taxpayers’ dollars into US shipyards – Huntington Ingalls Industries and General Dynamics Electric Boat and the US Defense company, System Planning and Analysis Inc.
No incentives for manufacturing in Australia, however: The earlier U$4.7b will enhance the US submarine industrial base to:
- Increase the Virginia class production rate
- Enhance Virginia class submarine deep and intermediate-level maintenance facilities in US
- Pre-purchase Virginia submarine components and materials, so they are on hand at the start of the maintenance period – saving time
- Outsource less complex sustainment and expand planning efforts for private sector overhauls to reduce backlog.
This detail was not supposed to be shared with Australians. In a Senate Estimates brief obtained using Freedom of Information laws, it was advised that this was to be kept quiet and only revealed ‘if pressed on the funding.’
The extra $3 billion is to be used for “training and training devices”. The announcement states “The sale will advance the AUKUS trilateral agreement by providing the equipment to train Royal Australian Navy crews in areas such as submarine navigation, communications, ship control, and other capabilities.
Additionally, it will also provide the means to train select Australian civilians and contractors at United States Naval Shipyards. This trained workforce will grow Australia’s submarine capability, which is expected to ultimately incorporate technologies from all three AUKUS partner nations.”
Implementation of the sale will involve the assignment of approximately 70 additional U.S. Government and contractor representatives to Australia to support in-person training, equipment familiarisation, and on-site engineering and maintenance of simulation and training devices.
The training program appears to be planned over the next three years.
By way of comparison, $3b spent on training in Australia over 3 years ($1b per year) in an Australian university would pay for some 3,600 staff and teach and train some 23,000 students per annum. For three billion dollars you can get more than 20,000 graduates.
But we do know that the AUKUS team are spending $633K on travel each month, so they must have things in hand.
Another issue is the timing. We're not expected to see the submarines until 2033, but the training is being funded from 2024 - 9 years ahead of time.
Maybe this relates to the ‘Submarine Rotational Force – West’. which is part of the optimal pathway laid out by PM Albanese in March when he took ownership of the AUKUS program.
Last week in Washington Defence Minister Marles announced that “The first planned maintenance activity of a U.S. SSN is planned to occur at HMAS Stirling in the second half of 2024. This will represent a substantial increase in Australian Defence Force participation in maintenance activities on U.S. SSNs.”
So, it seems that Australian taxpayers are paying three billion dollars to ramp up our ability to support US submarines operating out of Australia. We’re paying them for us to help them.
Sure, there can be no question that there will be benefits in terms of experience gained by the Australian Navy and Western Australian industry, but former Prime Minister Paul Keating was right in March when he said,
"At the Kabuki show in San Diego … there are three leaders standing there. Only one is paying. Our bloke, Albo."
On that note, a check of the Senate Question on Notice database shows Defence has not answered the question from Senator Lambie, “Has Defence paid for any AUKUS partner officials to travel to and from Australia; if so, how much was spent on overseas official’s travel?”. It’s a question that’s been sitting unanswered on the notice paper since August.
AUKUS has become a great sinkhole for Australian taxpayers’ money.
It doesn’t just stop at the US border. In a newly released House of Commons Library research paper, a further widening of the sinkhole was revealed. In a section of the brief entitled ‘Spending on the UK nuclear enterprise,” the following was stated:
“Further, sustained funding will be provided to the SSN-AUKUS program over the next decade. Australia will also make a “proportionate financial investment in the United Kingdom submarine industrial base” to accelerate production and accommodate the manufacture of the nuclear propulsion plants for the Australian SSN-AUKUS submarines in the UK. No further details on that financial contribution have been provided, although the government has confirmed that plans are underway to expand the Rolls Royce site in Derby, with the expectation of creating 1,170 skilled jobs.”
So, it’s a blank cheque from Australian taxpayers and at least 1,170 jobs for the British.
Assuming the UK commitment at this stage is similar to the $US4.7B commitment, we’re exporting more than $12B Australian dollars for ZERO Australian jobs and ZERO Australian manufacturing growth.
To add insult to injury, all this is not being revealed by the Australian government, but by the beneficiary partners, as further news hit the streets on the Navy’s $45B Future Frigates fiasco.
A report into the troubled program by two former senior Defence officials found that the Future Frigates tender did not pay sufficient attention to the project’s risks, nor “fulfil the requirements of the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs) in relation to achieving value for money.”
Having botched yet another major Defence procurement program our Defence Department bureaucrats are moving ahead with the $368B AUKUS submarine program.
On Tuesday 5 December, 2023, Senator Lambie nailed it at question time, asking Foreign Minister Penny Wong, representing Defence Minister Richard Marles:
"AUKUS is a multi-decade program set to cost 10 times what the frigates will cost. Minister, how can the Australian people possibly have any confidence that AUKUS won’t be just another stuff-up?"
Apart from the benefit to foreign industry from our $12B cash injection, AUKUS is a mammoth shipwreck in the making.
Comments
Post a Comment