Secret plans have been drawn up to move hundreds of Collins Class submarine maintenance jobs from Adelaide to Western Australia

THE Federal Government is under pressure to order a halt to planning that could lead to hundreds of Collins Class submarine maintenance jobs being moved from Adelaide to Western Australia.

• WA sniffing for Collins submarine maintenance work
• Warships and submarines no longer ‘projects of concern’
• SA set for ‘tiny part’ of $89bn submarines, shipbuilding construction

THE Federal Government is under pressure to order a halt to planning that could lead to hundreds of Collins Class submarine maintenance jobs being moved from Adelaide to Western Australia.

The Defence Department instructed government-owned ASC Submarines to draw up a draft plan for its 700-strong Adelaide operation to relocate to WA, documents released under freedom of information laws show.

Government Ministers yesterday said that no decision had been made to move heavy maintenance of the submarines to the west and that Defence were just carrying out routine contingency planning.

Nick Xenophon Team Senator Rex Patrick accused the Turnbull Government of deceiving South Australians.

Government documents released to Senator Patrick reveal the ASC was in December given until the end of next month to finalise a draft plan for all maintenance of the six Collins Class submarines to be based at Henderson in WA.

About 700 of ASC Submarines’ workers are based in Adelaide, where full cycle docking — or major overhauls — are conducted. Another 400 ASC staff carry out other maintenance on the submarines near their base in WA.

HMAS Collins returns to Fleet Base West at Garden Island in Western Australia.

The documents include a letter dated December 12, 2017 from Defence officials to ASC chief executive Stuart Whiley, in which he is asked to “continue to work on the study concerning the potential relocations of full cycle dockings in the 2024 to 2026 time frame as an alternative to remaining in South Australia”.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne last night said there was no plan to move full cycle docking from Osborne to Henderson.

“Defence routinely undertakes studies to take account of any contingency,’’ Mr Pyne said.

“Naval ship and submarine building is a $90 billion project and sustainment and maintenance is bigger again over many decades.”

HMAS Collins returns to Fleet Base West at Garden Island in Western Australia after several years.

“Not developing options to deal with contingencies would be Defence not doing its job.”

Senator Patrick attacked the Government for failing to release the documents until after the state election.

“Nick Xenophon was on the money in relation to this when he started asking questions back in 2016,’’ he said.

“Whilst there was a plan in development, it was being held secret from the public and the Senate. South Australians were deceived with what appears to be a conscious effort to betray them.”

Embarrassingly for Senator Patrick, Defence Minister Marise Payne read out in Parliament part of a 2013 article in which he called for submarine sustainment to be moved to Perth.

Senator Patrick said he was a private citizen when he wrote a series of articles about submarine procurement and he now supported keeping maintenance in Adelaide.

Collins class submarine HMAS Rankin during a training exercise. Picture: AFP / Navy

A spokesman for the Premier Steven Marshall said the new state Liberal Government wanted as much shipbuilding and sustainment conducted in the state as possible.

“The South Australian Government’s understanding is that there is no plan to shift the Collins Class maintenance away from Osborne,’’ the spokesman said.

“We will continue to urge the Federal Government to conduct as much shipbuilding and submarine construction and maintenance in SA as possible.”

The Defence documents state that options to move submarine maintenance were needed in case the shipbuilding workforce in Adelaide became overstretched when construction of the Future Submarines and new surface ships was underway.

They also reveal that just weeks after The Advertiser asked Defence in 2016 whether it was looking into moving Collins Class maintenance to WA, Defence instructed ASC to temporarily stop some planning, “Due to the current sensitivity relating to consolidation of Collins Class maintenance in WA.’’

WA politicians have been lobbying for several years for all of the submarine maintenance work to be located in Perth.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told The Advertiser in 2016 the Collins Class sustainment work would continue to be based in Adelaide.

“Sustainment at the moment is done both between Henderson and Osborne, and that would continue,” he said at the time. “It will be shared between the two, but the heavier work was obviously always going to be done at Osborne, as it is now.’’

But an independent report on submarine maintenance released later in 2016 said it seemed “inevitable” that full cycle docking maintenance of the Collins Class submarines would be transferred to WA within about a decade.

An ASC spokesman said the location of Collins Class sustainment was a matter for Defence.