Future Submarine plan won’t budge from Adelaide

About 20 years ago I wrote a column about Adelaide in The Bulletin. I somewhat courageously queried why we continued to support a million people living in South Australia.

The rest of Australia has sacrificed much of its wealth keeping South Australia going in the style to which it has become accustomed. As a minister in the Hawke government, I watched as everything but the kitchen sink was thrown at South Australia. Its inhabitants would take swift and brutal revenge on any party that failed to ensure the gravy train kept running on time.

I wouldn’t be able to calculate exactly how many billions were wasted on the vehicle-building industry in Adelaide. Everyone knew that every billion was a mere Band-Aid on the industry’s problems, but both sides of politics kept the billions rolling in.

When your production runs are a tiny fraction of those in Asia, your future is bleak. The car industry limped along until its Japanese and American owners could no longer make a profit even with those massive subsidies.

Then along came the Collins-class submarines. There was never a snowflake’s chance in hell that there would be a genuine contest about where in Australia they were going to be built. Seats in Adelaide are always the priority, no matter which side of politics is in the ascendancy.

The result was a submarine in almost permanent need of maintenance. These boats were too loud. They could be picked up by the naked ear in Beijing each time they left their base in Adelaide. The weapons and communications systems needed constant tweaking. By the time all the kinks had been ironed out, the final product was nowhere near what had been held out as a submarine up there with the best in the world.

Cabinets only think they make the decisions on what to build and where to build it. Be it a frigate or a submarine, the systems involved are so complex that in the few days available no minister can be across even a fraction of the details. As a NSW senator, I had wanted the Australian navy frigates to be built in Newcastle rather than Melbourne. Malcolm McIntosh from the Defence Department came to my office and spent three hours with me explaining and answering questions.

After all that time I felt I knew even less than the little I knew to begin with.

The Defence Department wanted Melbourne, and it was impossible to argue against it.

However, although cabinet ministers may not be able to argue a case on these frigates, when Australian National University professor of strategic studies Hugh White suggests that huge savings ($35 billion) can be made if instead of building a fleet we buy new submarines off the shelf, you have to take notice. A new report, bristling with the expertise and experience of White and Insight Economics’ Jon Stanford, is a warning that should at least be evaluated and not instantly dismissed, as it was yesterday by Defence Minister Marise Payne and Christopher Pyne, minister for pork-barrelling.

Outlining the risk of sticking to our guns and building in Adelaide, White says: “It runs two very significant risks. The first is that we will pay far too much for a boat that will do far too little. The second is that even if we get that boat, we are in grave danger of a very serious capability gap; that is, that boat will not be delivered on time before the present submarines leave service.”

Former Prime Minister’s Department head Mike Keating is the other signatory to this report. These are three sound thinkers, not given to flights of fancy.

If these well-qualified gentlemen tell us it would cost less than $10bn to buy off-the-shelf submarines with a 30-year life expectancy, or $15bn to extend the life of the Collins-class subs, surely we can’t be so stupid as to refuse to examine their claims.

The last time I made a criticism of the rest of Australia propping up Adelaide, The Advertiser gave me a sizeable front-page character assessment. To all those living in Adelaide: regardless of any merit in my remarks, you can all be absolutely certain that both sides of politics will ignore me and ignore the expert panel. Adelaide and its seats are always clasped to the bosoms of Liberal and Labor alike.

Meanwhile, the farce of the same-sex marriage postal survey continues apace. Even the NRL grand final has been dragged into the mire and the NRL is being roundly criticised for allowing American rap artist Macklemore to sing his hit song Same Love on Sunday night.

My good friend Tony Abbott has chimed in to complain about the NRL politicising sport. For once, Tony, you have pulled the wrong rein.

The fact is that Macklemore was invited by the NRL as a result of focus group research. That research and the invitation preceded the announcement of the same-sex survey by some months. Given his song was a huge hit, this bloke can’t be told not to sing it.

I had never heard of Macklemore until a few days ago, and I suspect the same is true of Abbott. Not being a huge fan of rap, this should come as no surprise. Even Cory Bernardi was happy to let this one go through to the keeper when he appeared on To the Point on Sky News with Peter van Onselen.

Abbott made himself look like a bit of a hypocrite by taking this stance against Macklemore’s appearance at the NRL grand final.

You can’t champion free speech only when that speech is in support of your views. Tony, this is not your finest hour and a mea culpa is probably in order.