AUKUS subs blow: 1080 fewer South Australian jobs in 2030

New data shows just how long it will take for SA’s defence industry to reach the soaring heights once promised with the French.

Hopes of a South Australian defence “jobs bonanza” have suffered a crushing blow as new data reveals the country’s nuclear-powered submarine program will employ 1000 fewer people over the next decade than the dumped Attack-class boats.

Newly unearthed Defence Department projections show there will be 515 fewer direct local defence roles in 2030 than previously anticipated, despite attempts to plug the future job losses with extensive maintenance work on the country’s ageing Collins-class submarine fleet.

On the eve of the state election campaign, Labor and manufacturing unions seized on the data, criticising Liberal promises of a defence “jobs bonanza” under the historic AUKUS security pact with Britain and the US.

Less jobs will be available in South Australia’s defence industry, according to new data.

Federal Labor MP Mark Butler, whose Hindmarsh electorate covers the Osborne shipyards, labelled it a “punch in the guts at a time when SA has the worst unemployment rate in the country”.

But Premier Steven Marshall hit back at Labor’s “catastrophising” and heralded a massive jobs boom in nuclear regulation, law and compliance that “we’ve simply never seen in Australia before”.

The preliminary estimates, provided to a Senate estimates committee, show 1500 South Australians are expected to work on the nuclear-powered submarines in 2030, compared with the anticipated 2580 on the Attack-class boats. The AUKUS program will extend well beyond 2030 with the first nuclear-powered submarine mooted to hit waters in 2040.

Local MP Mark Butler says the decision is a “punch in the guts.” Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dean Martin

The state has already employed 179 more people to help maintain the Collins-class fleet, which will have a sustainment workforce of 1300 when the huge life-of-type extension program begins in 2026.

Across the entire industry, new estimates show there will be about 5450 direct defence jobs in SA in 2030, compared with 5965 in pre-AUKUS projections. The numbers show direct Defence and prime contractor jobs only and excludes indirect jobs for businesses in the supply chain.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last September cancelled the Naval Group contract to instead build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines at the Osborne shipyard.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Attack-class submarines are no longer viable. Picture: Adam Taylor

Mr Morrison said the conventional Attack-class submarines were no longer viable in the face of rising tensions in the South China Sea.

A design for the nuclear-powered submarines has not yet been selected, as a Defence task force studies the best way forward for the program.

Glenn Thompson, convener of the Australian Shipbuilding Federation of Unions, said the projections proved a “major blow” for the local shipbuilding industry.

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