Paul Starick: AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project has Adelaide in spotlight

Rarely has what happens in Adelaide mattered so much to our nation – possibly even the rest of the world, Paul Starick writes.

Rarely before, if ever, has South Australia’s political influence on the national stage been so great in a single moment.

The Advertiser’s Defending Australia event on Monday night, at Canberra’s Australian War Memorial, brought together military, business, education, diplomatic and political leaders to discuss the $368bn nuclear-powered submarine construction project centred on Adelaide.

This is the biggest national endeavour in Australian history, which is being undertaken as the centrepiece of a security pact, AUKUS, with our two strongest and most traditional allies, the United Kingdom and United States.

The nuclear-powered submarine project and the AUKUS pact are designed to counter China’s huge military build-up in our region, labelled by keynote speaker and Defence Minister Richard Marles as the biggest conventional armed forces expansion since the end of World War II.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles addressing the Defending Australia Event at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Put simply, Adelaide is at the heart of the biggest, costliest and most complex project in Australia’s history, itself a major manoeuvre in intensifying competition between China and the US.

The scale and global importance was evident by the array of big names who attended the Defending Australia dinner, including Mr Marles, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, British High Commissioner Vicki Treadell, Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond and Nuclear Powered Submarine Task Force chief Vice Admiral Jonathan Meade. Premier Peter Malinauskas was a speaker, as were major defence firm chiefs.

US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Premier Peter Malinauskas at the Defending Australia dinner at Canberra’s Australian War Memorial. Picture: Dylan Coker

This was an extraordinary concentration of power and influence, which reflected the project’s importance. All three countries involved in the AUKUS security pact are invested in the Adelaide-based submarine project’s success. This is obvious from two simple facts: that it is only the second time the US is handing its nuclear submarine technology to another country; and that the first beneficiary, the UK, is designing the AUKUS submarine and lending decades of construction expertise from the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard.

It is important to distinguish this from previous Adelaide naval shipbuilding ventures, including the Attack Class project with French firm Naval Group that was scuttled in favour of AUKUS. This is not a contract between Australia and a defence firm. Rather, it is the linchpin of a tripartite agreement designed to boost industrial capacity to counter China’s military expansion in our region.

There is some thawing in the relationship with our biggest trading partner. Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian told a May 18 media briefing that 2023 “can be seen as a year of exchange and dialogue”. There are great hopes on both sides for the removal of Chinese trade barriers on exports including wine, barley and lobster.

Returning to the Canberra dinner, Mr Malinauskas’s speech will fuel simmering speculation that his long-term future is in the federal parliament. His rhetoric and national focus were closer to that of a prime minister than a premier. This was remarked upon by several of the influential attendees after the dinner.

Any Mali-for-Canberra push is mere speculation. As The Advertiser highlighted last weekend, he and corporate lawyer wife Annabel are conscious of the impact of politics on their young family.

The Premier’s immediate professional challenge is helping achieve the immense task of making Adelaide-based construction of AUKUS submarines actually happen, particularly developing the necessary skilled workforce.

Maintaining bipartisanship is crucial across the three countries, including at the state level. Opposition Leader David Speirs will attempt to test this next week by putting to the parliamentary vote his motion for a “bipartisan joint committee into the AUKUS submarines build and the anticipated benefits”.

This project promises transformative change. SA must step up to help make it happen.

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Originally published as Paul Starick: AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project has Adelaide in spotlight