Time to build AUKUS workforce

A salient warning contained in a report from the United States Studies Centre reinforces the importance of smoothing the way for highly paid, skilled technicians to migrate to Australia. According to the USSC report, Australia is unprepared to develop a workforce with the expertise to help deliver a sovereign fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. The window is narrowing to identify and prepare the future workforce, as Ben Packham reports.

The “specialist skills pathway” in the Albanese government’s new migration strategy, unveiled by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, should help redress the worker shortage. Highly talented applicants needed for crucial jobs in science, technology and cyber security are to have their visas processed within seven days instead of a year.

The USSC report team, led by Defence Strategic Review principal author Peter Dean, has called for gender targets to be introduced and “a supportive culture” fostered to attract and retain female workers to increase the size of the potential AUKUS workforce pool. Australian industries are facing expansive skills shortages, especially among tradespeople, technicians and labourers, the report says. While non-citizens would be unable to work on the AUKUS program for security reasons, the report advocates an increase in skilled migration to free up Australian workers in “adjacent industries”, such as mining, to join the nuclear submarine program. Writing in The Australian last week, Rear Admiral Philip Spedding said effective homeporting and sustainment of the submarines would be vital, including crew support, resupply, routine maintenance, repair and upgrade.

The US congress is poised to pass critical legislation as early as this week that would give the green light for the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines to the Australian navy in the early 2030s. That agreement, between Republicans and Democrats in the US House of Representatives and the Senate, will bring AUKUS, the vital security pact between the US, Australia and Britain, a big step closer to reality.