Why Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull can’t escape submarine headache during Adelaide visit

SECURING a $230 million defence industry centre to grow jobs in Adelaide and across the nation should be unalloyed good news for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to deliver during a three-day visit.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks at a press conference announcing the expansion of Melbourne University's BIO21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute in Melbourne, Monday, March 7, 2016. (AAP Image/Julian Smith) NO ARCHIVING

• $230m defence jobs hub for Adelaide

SECURING a $230 million defence industry centre to generate jobs in Adelaide and across the nation should be unalloyed good news for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to deliver during a three-day visit.

It is, after all, bolstering South Australia’s reputation as the Defence State by building on a base provided by companies like BAE Systems, Saab and, crucially, naval shipbuilder ASC.

But even this impressive announcement does not unscramble the submarine headache bequeathed to Mr Turnbull by his Liberal and Labor predecessors.

He is saddled with their undelivered promises to build submarines in Adelaide and is now grappling with a competitive evaluation process commissioned by the man he ousted as leader, Tony Abbott. This is not expected to decide the designer and builder of Australia’s multi-billion dollar future submarine program until June.

Until then, every Prime Ministerial excursion to Adelaide will be accompanied by repeated questions over whether submarines will built here.

But Mr Turnbull and Defence Minister Marise Payne are locked into the same incomplete answer — there is a competitive evaluation process underway between Japan, Germany and France.

This means the unresolved submarine issue will be the uncomfortable backdrop to Mr Turnbull’s three-day SA visit, starting this morning with the significant announcement of the Centre for Defence Industry Capability’s Adelaide headquarters.

This will mean key decisions about this vital industry are significantly influenced from SA, most likely from a base at Techport, home to ASC.

The decision to base the Centre here underlines the internal power of Industry Minister Christopher Pyne.

The indefatigable Mr Pyne long ago recognised the significant threat posed to his party’s fortunes in SA by its blunders over defence industry, particularly submarines. These have been exploited by popular senator Nick Xenophon as he campaigns for an Adelaide build and positions candidates for his fledgling party in key Liberal (and Labor) seats.

Mr Pyne, as Industry Minister, has helped deliver a Defence White Paper that puts at its heart developing the Australian defence industry. Now, a linchpin of driving that industry will be based in Adelaide, his hometown.

But the threat to Mr Pyne’s eastern suburbs seat of Sturt and other Liberal strongholds remains live while ASC is laying off workers and staring at a skeleton workforce before construction of nine frigates starts in 2020, in a $30 billion project.

This pressure will intensify if none of the 12 Offshore Patrol Vessels, for which construction starts in 2018, are built in SA because Western Australia’s intense campaign for the project is successful.

The Government has not doused growing speculation of a July 2 double dissolution election. Regardless of whether it is then or later in the year, Mr Turnbull will have to clear the submarine construction issue from his decks to avoid a major political headache in SA.