SA Premier Peter Malinauskas says eastern states need to embrace the critical national defence AUKUS project

South Australia cannot meet the massive task of building AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines alone – and the time to act for eastern states is now.

South Australia cannot alone meet the mammoth challenge of building AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines in a $368bn project, says Premier Peter Malinauskas, as he challenges eastern states to embrace the critical national defence enterprise.

Speaking from Washington, D.C., Mr Malinauskas said a disjointed national effort to meet skills and industry uplifts required to build the submarines in short timelines had been raised during talks in his United States trip.

In an interview with The Advertiser, the Premier said he did not believe the scale of the opportunity and responsibility to build nuclear-powered submarines had sunk in on Australia’s eastern seaboard.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas visits the Newport News shipyard in the US. Picture: Supplied

Mr Malinauskas said the US Congress’s bipartisan decision to give Australia “access to their (nuclear) crown jewels” was a big deal and a privilege to be treated “with great responsibility and care, not just in South Australia but throughout the nation”.

“The size of the challenge before us as a country to build nuclear submarines in the timelines that have been outlined is so big that it requires an all-hands-on-deck approach,” he said.

“The industry uplift required to achieve this cannot be done in South Australia alone. Whether they’re engineering firms, design firms, training providers – these types of businesses around the country will have to participate in the national endeavour of nuclear submarine building, and the time to act is now.”

Mr Malinauskas, who will deliver the keynote address at The Advertiser’s Defending Australia summit in Canberra on Tuesday, repeatedly has declared the challenge of building nuclear-powered submarines far greater than forging the car industry.

He has insisted that submarine construction is “a whole other level of complexity” to produce “the most complex machine ever built in human history”.

Speaking before leaving the US capital on Tuesday night (Wednesday SA time), Mr Malinauskas said the race had already begun to meet tight timelines to build the Osborne shipyard and workforce, ahead of the first AUKUS boats hitting the water in the 2040s.

Mr Malinauskas, whose 10-day trip includes visits to both US nuclear submarine yards, urged a national effort to get more people participating in science, technology, engineering and maths disciplines.

“In the US at the moment they are doing everything they can to dramatically restore the industrial capability they had for nuclear submarine production before the peace dividend in the 90s – and they’re finding it very difficult,” he said.

“But at least they know what they need to do to get there. We’re starting from scratch. There is effort underway and there is movement and the US have made it clear to us that they are actually pleased with the pace that Australia is moving at. But I don’t think we have a moment to lose.”

Mr Malinauskas said he wanted to see Australian workers benefiting from well-entrenched skills training programs at Virginia’s Newport News shipyard, where the Virginia Class nuclear-powered submarines are built that Australia will acquire from the 2030s.

“There’s well over 20,000 people that work there and they’re trying to get it above 30,000 as quickly as they can, because of the uplift,” he said.

“I certainly think there is a few things that we can replicate. I think we need to see Australian workers on site in these yards as quickly as possible.”