WA eyes maintenance boom as SA wins bigger share of submarine jobs

WA will secure only a fraction of the AUKUS submarine jobs that South Australia will enjoy under the $368bn program.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

Western Australia believes it will be the biggest winner from the AUKUS program despite securing only a fraction of the headline jobs South Australia will enjoy under the $368bn program.

An $8bn overhaul of the existing HMAS Stirling naval base at Garden Island, off the coast of Rockingham in WA, will create 3000 direct jobs and will become the western hub for Australia’s new nuclear submarines.

South Australia will gain more than 9500 jobs over 30 years thanks to the decision to build the submarines at a new facility at Osborne.

While the construction work will head to SA, WA’s role in the support and maintenance of the nation’s submarines will grow significantly.

HMAS Stirling has long hosted visiting submarines from other nations but the frequency of visits from US and British nuclear submarines will increase from 2027 when it becomes the home for Submarine Rotational Force-West. They will be joined by Australia’s first nuclear submarines when they are bought in the early 2030s.

WA Premier Mark McGowan said HMAS Stirling and the shipbuilding businesses based in nearby Henderson would be big beneficiaries of the program. “The ongoing maintenance is 70 per cent of the spend on the submarines; the build is around 30 per cent of the cost,” he said.

Toff Idrus, a former submarine engineer who was the lead person responsible for the development of WA’s nuclear submarine sustainment capability development road map, said construction work for SA and maintenance work for WA suited the expertise of both.

Having visiting nuclear subs in WA in the near term would allow the state to develop the extra skills needed to support those boats. “It’s pretty clear that the lion’s share of any asset with maritime capability is in the maintenance and sustainment space,” Mr Idrus said. “We’ve built that capability in WA so it makes a lot of sense to leverage that capability.”

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas lauded the subs announcement as a “game-changer” for his state, saying work would begin this year on the design of the Osborne yard, with the first Australian-built nuclear submarine to be completed by 2040.

The federal government has already set aside $2bn over the next four years to help build the Osborne construction yard, with that work to employ 4000.

“We know the numbers only scale up from there – 5500 direct jobs potentially employed in the construction of the nuclear submarines, and that’s before we talk about the indirect jobs,” Mr Malinauskas said.

What matters more than anything, he said, was the opportunity “to dramatically uplift the skills base here in South Australia”.

WA has the lowest unemployment rate in Australia, but Defence Industry Minister Paul Papalia is confident enough workers will be found for the project.

“What WA has done historically is respond to huge demand for additional trained skilled people. We’ve done that before,” he said. “Our institutions are the best at identifying demand and need and then ramping up to meet that. We did it in successive booms and we can do it again.”