Navy overhaul: ‘Far from quick fix will leave us high and dry’, says Coalition

The Coalition has pushed for more immediate solutions to upgrade Australia’s naval surface fleet, taking aim at the extra $1.7bn over the forward estimates as a ‘drop in the ocean’.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Coalition says Labor’s surface fleet review does not act quickly enough to upgrade Australia’s defence capabilities on the high seas, with opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie saying the ­nation would not see a “new ship in the water until 2031”.

Mr Hastie said Richard Marles should be focused on “what can he fix by 2026” after the Defence Minister said the government would acquire 11 new general purpose frigates, with the first to be in service by the end of the decade.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Hastie also questioned whether the funding of $11.1bn over the next 10 years would be sufficient and noted that only $1.7bn was being made available over the next four years.

“I think what is clear here is that Richard Marles went to cabinet … and he lost against Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Jim Chalmers,” he said. “I think the real question he should be asking is what can he fix by 2026.”

The director of Strategic Analysis Australia, Michael Shoebridge, said the all the new money was being “backended later in the decade”.

“That gives time for Defence to run its usual slow beauty contest. I think the implementation looks too slow and that jars with the whole urgency that is caused by our dangerous region and the fact the fleet is ageing and failing.”

Mr Hastie said the lack of urgency did not make sense, given Anthony Albanese and Mr Marles were “both banging the same drum, which is that Australia is facing the most dangerous strategic circumstances since the end of World War II”.

“If that is the case, what are they doing to fix by 2026 in the Australian Defence Force,” he said. “They are not serious about national security. Ever since the Defence Strategic Review was handed down last year … we’ve seen no new money. We’ve seen cuts to capability. And we’ve seen inflation eating into the Defence budget. This $1.7bn over forward estimates is a drop in the ocean.”

The Prime Minister said the government was making a “very significant announcement. We’re talking about more than doubling the surface fleet into the future. And today’s announcement … will be good for our defence but as well, good for jobs, including particularly in Adelaide and here in Perth,” he said. “We inherited a system that had, in the case of the frigates, a $20bn black hole – a costing of $45bn allowed for but real costs of $65bn.”

The Greens on Tuesday said the surface fleet review had revealed Australia was more interested in “threatening neighbours” than defending the country.

It also took aim at the price tag for Labor’s “enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet” review, noting it involved a $54.2bn spend over the next decade on top of the $368bn to be spent on yet-to-be-designed AUKUS submarines.

Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge attacked the review’s recommitment to the “disastrous” $45bn Hunter-class frigates after the program was referred by his party to the National Anti-Corruption Commission in 2023, with an auditor-general’s report last year finding the Turnbull government failed to conduct an effective tender process for the procurement – one of the nation’s largest – and warning that the program was facing cost blowouts.

“The push for continuous shipbuilding in Adelaide, linked to local politics and a hope to keep a nuclear submarine workforce, is what’s driving this multibillion-dollar mistake,” he said.

“It is not a review, it is a shopping list; it will be impossible to hold Defence to account for inevitable future failures.”