Australia’s big AUKUS win on US export controls, submarine sale

US ambassador Kevin Rudd says Australia is on the verge of a major win to deliver the AUKUS pact – as long as it is not caught up in bitter fight over ‘wokeism’.

Australia is on the verge of winning a 20-year exemption from America’s strict arms export rules that will fast-track the sharing of cutting edge military technology under the AUKUS pact.

A bipartisan proposal currently moving its way through the US Congress also means two of the three nuclear-powered submarines Australia buys from the US will be Virginia-class boats already in use by the American Navy, while the third will be fresh from the factory.

But while Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd has praised the deal, it still faces legislative roadblocks amid an unprecedented fight over the nation’s annual defence bill, sparked by Republicans tacking on amendments on abortion policy, transgender healthcare and diversity training.

Kevin Rudd has been lobbying US officials on AUKUS since taking over as Australia’s ambassador in Washington DC earlier this year. Picture: Supplied

“I know the business of making sausages can sometimes be untidy, messy, prolonged, but ultimately there’s a sausage at the end, and so it is with the passage of legislation,” the former prime minister said.

Dr Rudd toured a submarine shipbuilding base in Virginia on Saturday with Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential running mate who now chairs the Senate Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee.

He said the AUKUS package negotiated by the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee – which would also allow Australians to train at US shipyards and enable the US to accept Australia’s $3bn investment in those facilities – was “very, very bipartisan”.

Ashley Townsend, a senior fellow for Indo-Pacific security at the Carnegie Endowment think tank, said it was heartening that Australia’s requests were being heard in Washington DC.

But he added that it would be important to see how the Senate plan “aligns and rides with the various amendments” put forward in the House.

“Still a way to go but very positive,” Mr Townsend said.

The crucial legislative changes are expected to be combined with the annual National Defense Authorisation Act, which descended into chaos in the House of Representatives on Saturday over a range of Republican amendments which Speaker Kevin McCarthy said were needed to “end wokeism in the military”.

Senator Tim Kaine was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election. Picture: Gustavo Caballero (Getty Images)

The Republican measures would ban the Pentagon funding abortions for military members, restrict taxpayer-funded care for gender transition and eliminate diversity programs.

In response, Democrats refused to vote for the bill en masse, with their leader Hakeem Jeffries blasting it as a “hate-filled vessel for right-wing MAGA extremism”.

Dr Rudd said there would be “some nips and tucks” to the AUKUS laws during forthcoming negotiations but that he was confident it would have bipartisan support.

Lt. William Hall, Lt. Cmdr. Adam Klyne and Lt. Cmdr. James Heydon are the first Australian submarine officers to graduate from the US nuclear training school. Picture: Sean Rayford

He hailed reforms to the US export control regime – which experts have warned could cruel the AUKUS plan to share technology such as hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence – as the “necessary precondition” for a “seamless defence, science and technology sector”.

US Under Secretary of the Navy Erik Raven said that despite major nuclear submarine production delays, the US was “absolutely” capable of speeding up the process to ensure it could sell Australia its three boats in the early 2030s.

Originally published as Australia’s big AUKUS win on US export controls, submarine sale