Prime Minister Scott Morrison rules out pre-election decision on nuclear subs

The Prime Minister has rejected comments made by his Defence Minister, ruling out a pre-election decision on which nuclear submarine Adelaide will build.

A decision on whether Adelaide will build a US or British model submarine under the AUKUS pact won’t be made before the election, Scott Morrison says, rejecting comments made by his Defence Minister.

The Prime Minister said he did not “anticipate” a decision to be made before voters go to the polls in May, just a day after Defence Minister Peter Dutton said an announcement was close.

“We don’t and no one should expect it to,” Mr Morrison told the Lowy Institute on Monday.

“It won’t be done in that time frame. (It) would involve a whole other process, particularly during a caretaker period leading up to the election.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaking to the Lowy Institute via a grainy video stream. SOURCE:Youtube/Lowy Institute

On Sunday, Mr Dutton told ABC’s Insiders program that an announcement would be made “within the next couple of months about which boat we are going with”.

Opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor seized Mr Morrison’s comments on Monday to declare the prime minister and Mr Dutton were “not on the same page”.

“We’re facing uncertainty and instability in the world and we need leadership not division in the Liberal leadership ranks,” Mr O’Connor said.

Mr Morrison announced a new $10bn base for the new Adelaide-made nuclear-powered submarines would be built at either Brisbane, Port Kembla or Newcastle.

But SA is still expected to benefit from a range of maintenance projects and visits from allied countries worth $1m a day.

“I think there will be maintenance, to be honest, across not just South Australia but the east coast, the west coast because we’re talking not only about Australian submarines, we’re also talking about significant visits to our country from (Britain’s) Astute-class,” Mr Dutton told ABC Radio on Monday.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton suggested SA would still secure maintenance works on the nuclear-powered submarines. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“We have the prospect, I think, of significant visits from the United States fleet – not just their submarines – and also the Japanese visits, the British visits of their frigates.”

Mr Dutton said some visiting countries were spending “a million dollars a day” on repairs, maintenance and other “activities” in Australia.

He also predicted India’s navy would make more visits to Australia amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.

SA-based Defence Teaming Centre head Audra McCarthy welcomed Mr Morrison’s announcement of an east-coast base, but warned it was too early to predict where the major maintenance projects would be completed.

A Defence Department spokeswoman said the location of maintenance was being considered as part of its 18-month Nuclear-Powered Submarine Taskforce, which is due to complete its feasibility report in March next year.

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Originally published as Prime Minister Scott Morrison rules out pre-election decision on nuclear subs