Future Subs: FOI reveals Naval Group 60 per cent pledge includes Aussie workers in France

Heavily-redacted documents obtained under FOI have revealed that Australian submarine workers in France are counted towards a contractual 60 per cent local spend.

Australians working in France on the Future Submarines project will count towards Naval Group’s promise to spend at least 60 per cent of its contract with local industry.

The detail is revealed in a heavily redacted 32-page document, released under Freedom of Information, which outlines changes to the contract to insert Naval Group’s spending pledge.

Any detail of penalties for failure to achieve the agreed “Australian contract expenditure” has been redacted.

Details of any incentives or bonuses if Naval Group meets the required local industry spend have also been redacted.

But the document shows the ‘local industry activity value’, the dollar value which will be measured, includes the “direct labour cost” of Australians “temporarily working in France” while training before they return and use that experience to build the submarines in Australia.

Opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor has raised concerns about Naval Group’s pledge including work that will be done by Australians overseas, particularly when ‘temporarily’ is not defined.

Opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor has raised concerns about Naval Group’s pledge including work that will be done by Australians overseas. Picture: AAP Image/James Ross

“After the government promised to build these submarines in South Australia with 60 per cent local content, the Strategic Partnering Agreement now says Australian workers in France will count as Australian industry expenditure,” he said.

“Labor wants to see the Future Submarines delivered on time, on budget, with jobs given to workers in Australia.”

A Defence Department spokeswoman confirmed all of the labour costs of Australian Naval Group employees working on the Future Submarine program would count towards the 60 per cent agreement with Naval Group.

A Naval Group spokesman said the company was “fully committed to boosting Australian sovereignty and maximising the involvement of local industry in the design and build of 12 new Attack Class submarines”.

“The worker placement program is an essential part of our plan to ensure Australians gain the skills and knowledge they need to design advanced submarines at home,” he said.

“It is creating new sovereign capability in Australia, and enabling Naval Group to transfer its more than 100 years of submarine building experience to Australia.”

The redacted document confirms spending with Australian industry won’t start at 60 per cent, but will build up to at least 60 per cent over the life of the project, with the amount to be agreed at each phase of work.

Meanwhile, hundreds of shipyard workers at Osborne are still in limbo while the Federal Government continues to delay a decision on whether Collins Class submarine Full Cycle Docking will stay in SA or move to Western Australia.

A decision was originally due to be announced in December 2019.

Collins Class submarines don’t need to go through ‘life of type extension’ until 2026, ASC boss says. Picture: Royal Australian Navy

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham would not say on Wednesday why the decision had been delayed or when it would be announced when asked by Labor frontbencher Penny Wong at Senate Estimates.

Senator Birmingham said the government would make the decision when “all of the appropriate analysis” and “appropriate planning” had been undertaken.

ASC chief executive Stuart Whiley also told the hearing there was “no need” to bring forward major upgrades to the Collins Class submarines by two years to 2024.

He said the subs had a certified “life” of 30 years, and that would not come to an end until 2026.

“This Life of Type Extension kicks in then to revalidate and re-certify the platform to give it another ten-year cycle,” Mr Whiley said.

“There is no need to do it earlier. The operational platform is certified until 2026.”

It comes after recent reports Defence Minister Peter Dutton was considering a proposal to bring forward the upgrades.

Mr Whiley would not speculate on how ASC workers felt about the Full Cycle Docking decision being delayed but said: “My believe is that there’s significant work in the local industry, nobody needs to be concerned about their jobs.”