Australia needs offshore military might to deter bullies, warns Defence Minister Richard Marles

The Defence Minister says our military might must extend far beyond our borders to “resist coercion”, as Australia goes all-in on fighting to save the AUKUS pact.

Australia needs to be able to deploy military power much further afield than our coastline to “resist coercion from any potential adversary” and boost security in our region, Defence Minister Richard Marles says.

Asked to nominate a figure for increased defence spending, Mr Marles said the government was resisting a firm benchmark in favour of spelling out the “fundamental capability we need to build”.

He listed cyber security and the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project as headline items in which critical build-ups needed to happen.

“Our vulnerability to coercion is our sea lines of communication – the security of the region in which we live – they are all well beyond our coastline,” he said.

“So we need capabilities that can project. And now it’s at that point that you then need obviously a long-range submarine. That’s what AUKUS is about.”

Federal Defence Minister Richard Marles. Picture: Brendan Radke

Cyber criminals and state actors are being targeted in a $10bn operating out of Australia’s electronic spy agency.

ASC chief executive officer and managing director Stuart Whiley, whose government-owned firm will be the joint constructor and sole maintainer of the nuclear-powered submarine fleet, said the pact was vital for security and industry.

“Rising geopolitical tensions and an increasingly contested environment mean submarines are more critical than ever to our nation’s defence and regional stability. This is why the AUKUS trilateral agreement between Australia, the US and the UK is so important,” he said.

Mr Whiley added: “AUKUS will make Australia more secure. It will also transform our nation’s workforce and supercharge our industrial capacity.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas said “building the world’s most complex machines” was a national endeavour.

“We must begin building a highly skilled workforce, now. Developing that workforce remains the biggest risk for AUKUS,” he said.

“But it also presents the biggest opportunity for us to realise a step change in our economic complexity, and with it, our standard of living.”

Babcock Australasia chief executive officer Andrew Cridland said defence investment could rebuild manufacturing in NSW, Victoria and SA.

“Renewed defence investment presents an opportunity, not just to revive this strength, but to propel the nation to the forefront of advanced manufacturing and sovereign capability,” he said.

BAE Systems Australia chief executive officer Craig Lockhart, whose firm is the joint AUKUS submarine constructor, said defence industry was focused on building capability.

“Our future stability as a peace time nation and our ability to service programs such as AUKUS will take every part of our collective effort,” he said.

KBR vice president Australia defence and security solutions Nic Maan said: “It is critically important to consider what the nation needs from a national security perspective – today, tomorrow and decades into the future.”

Premier: Full steam ahead despite Trump review

By SA Premier Peter Malinauskas

As an island continent, in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment, Australia must have its own submarines.

And it is important to remember one undeniable fact: Australia either builds our own submarines or has none at all.

As it stands today, neither the UK nor the US are able to produce enough submarines for themselves, let alone anybody else – so it is therefore clearly in Australia’s national interest to develop our own sovereign capability.

We shouldn’t be surprised the US has launched a review into AUKUS. A multilateral, multibillion-dollar, decades-long agreement should be subject to ongoing scrutiny.

The Albanese Labor government conducted the Defence Strategic Review, which examined AUKUS, upon coming to power, and the Starmer government in the United Kingdom conducted the Lovegrove Review last year. The UK subsequently reaffirmed its support for AUKUS.

While it would be foolhardy to predict the outcome of another country’s review, there can be no doubt work must continue here in Australia to build the skills base and industrial capability we need to build nuclear-powered submarines.

And in South Australia, we aren’t wasting a minute.

In just three years since coming to government, we have built the Findon Technical College and established a partnership with BAE Systems Australia. The first students from Findon have already started working as apprentices at BAE at the Osborne Naval Shipyard, putting them on the path to a future career building nuclear-powered submarines.

We are working with the Commonwealth on building a dedicated $480m naval Skills and Training Academy.

The South Australian Government is investing in local defence suppliers developing the requisite capability and capacity to enter global supply chains for nuclear-powered submarines and committed $3.3m to that endeavour in this month’s state budget.

In an increasingly uncertain world, building our own submarines isn’t simply an ambition, it’s a necessity.

Originally published as Australia needs offshore military might to deter bullies, warns Defence Minister Richard Marles