AUKUS visa will be considered by Albanese government

A new AUKUS visa will be considered to ensure Australia has enough skilled workers to deliver on a major defence commitment. This is how it would work.

Exclusive: An AUKUS visa will be considered by the Albanese government to ensure Australia has enough skilled workers to deliver on the pact’s commitment to defence innovation.

And News Corp can reveal talks are already underway with our AUKUS partners to send Australian workers to American and British shipyards to hone their skills building nuclear-powered submarines before a domestic facility is up and running.

While the US has been progressing legislation for Australian submarine officers to train on American boats, the federal government is also focused on ensuring the domestic workforce required to build nuclear-powered submarines has adequate experience.

The idea of an AUKUS visa – covering skilled workers such as engineers, cyber professionals, military personnel and electronic warfare specialists – was proposed earlier this year by United States Studies Centre defence and foreign policy non-resident fellow Jennifer Jackett.

The federal government is focused on ensuring the domestic workforce required to build nuclear-powered submarines has adequate experience – and may consider a new AUKUS visa to make it possible. Picture: Supplied

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy, in an exclusive interview in Washington DC last week, said it was “certainly something we should be exploring”.

He said the government was also working with the US and the UK on how to ensure workers could move between the three countries and have the appropriate security clearances to work on high-tech defence projects.

In meetings at the Pentagon last week and with his British counterpart Ben Wallace last month, Mr Conroy raised the idea of Australian submarine builders training in US and UK shipyards.

“Just as we have to build a naval workforce, we need to build an industrial workforce to build the submarines,” he said.

“They’re going to have to build their skills and their experience, and big chunks of that will be done in Australia building other things, but some of it can only be developed working on other submarines.”

Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said the federal government was “exploring” an AUKUS visa. Picture: Yuri Gripas

Mr Conroy said while it was “very early days” on progressing the training plan, both allies had expressed an openness about making it happen.

“We’re talking about the crown jewels of the US and UK military,” he said, referring to their nuclear-powered submarine technology.

“There’s hurdles but I think it’s a win-win because not only do we develop the skills of our workforce we need to build our submarines, but we help supplement workforces that are under huge capacity constraints in the United Kingdom and the United States right now.”

He said the government was committed to delivering a domestic submarine manufacturing facility rather than relying solely on its AUKUS partners.

“AUKUS will only work if we actually increase the industrial base of all three countries,” Mr Conroy said.

Originally published as AUKUS visa will be considered by Albanese government