AUKUS: Fiasco or value for money?

IT is highly recommended that anyone interested in the AUKUS submarine program iView ABC’s 4-Corners program “Submerged”.

Under the AUKUS agreement Australia is to acquire at least three American Virginia-class submarines, the first due in 2032 and SSN AUKUS nuclear submarines from the UK;  the first delivered from Barrow in the early 2040s, with an Australian production line established in Adelaide to build more.

The SSN AUKUS 10,000 tonne submarine (three times three size of Collins) is being designed by BAE Systems (with Australia contributing funding).  

Australia has already sunk nearly $5 billion into the design by Rolls-Royce for the submarine’s nuclear reactor.

In addition, some $8 billion is being invested in facilities at HMAS Stirling to support acquired nuclear submarines and support visiting US nuclear submarines from 2027.  

There are difficulties.  

Firstly, both the US and UK do not currently have the skilled workforces to meet their submarine building programs for the Virginia-class in the US and in the UK for Dreadnought submarines. 

Australia has already paid $800 million to assist the US submarine construction program. 

Secondly, the global political environment has changed since Aukus formation in 2021 – wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, EU countries spending more on their own defence, the Indo-Pacific and China’s military expansion, and the uncertain world created by US president Donald Trump.

Thirdly, the timeframe raises questions of the relevance of the submarine technology in decades to come.  

The SSN AUKUS cannot operate in the shallow waters and Archipelago in our north that Collins is suited for.

Australia has committed some $368 billion of taxpayer’s funding for acquisition of nuclear submarines (plus a $132 billion contingency) that we are increasingly unlikely to acquire. 

Reduction of funding for the RAAF, army, etc., potentially weakens our defence readiness and capability.

Highly regarded former submarine fleet commander Peter Briggs said predictively: “Plan A is not gonna work. Virginia is not gonna arrive … SSN-AUKUS is a risky proposition as well… It’s an expensive illusion”.

PS. Indonesia has ordered two French Scorpene-class attack submarines to be built in Indonesia, valued around $2 billion….

Graham Mahony
Attadale

We can’t by bystanders

EARLIER this month the City of Fremantle became the first local government in Australia to take a position on the recent approval of the North West Shelf extension. 

It is absurd that we are at a point where it is up to local governments to take a stance.

But I felt like there was no other option. 

We teach children from a young age that being a bystander to bullying is just as bad as the bullying itself. 

How could we sit by and be bystanders to a decision that goes against our established value as a city of climate action? 

Fremantle as a community and city have always been leaders in climate action. 

In 2021, the City declared a climate emergency and that urgent action is required by all levels of government.

We continue to spend money and take action to reduce our corporate emissions, support our community to reduce theirs, increase urban canopy and manage coastal erosion. 

Yet the recent decision to approve the extension of the North West Shelf processing plant to 2070 undermines every single action that we and our community take in good faith. 

According to the Australian Institute, this approval will lead to an additional 4 billion tonnes of CO2 being emitted from the burning of that gas.

Certainly more than all the reduction efforts we take in Fremantle. 

The approval is a decision that flagrantly disregards the reality that climate emissions have impacts across jurisdictions. 

While we won’t burn all of the gas, we will be left to fund and clean up the mess as the climate crisis worsens. 

Our role as a local government is to stand with our community and to be an advocate for their views. 

To me, the NOM was about standing up for all the effort, time and money that our community spends on climate action.

It is not a decision against people who use fossil fuel products; after all we are the mining state. 

But if the climate crisis requires action from all levels of government, then we need decisions that speed up innovation for a just transition, not make any hope of a transition seem even further away. 

Our decision as a council doesn’t change the approval of the North West Shelf (obviously), but it recognises the outrage the decision caused in our community and reminds the state and federal governments that we will not be bystanders to decisions that destroy the value of any of our actions on climate. 

My hope is that this is just another tiny piece in the puzzle of advocacy for climate action. 

Hopefully, it might even make some headlines on its own. 

But after all, it really is just a bunch of letters. 

Jemima Williamson-Wong
Councillor, City of Fremantle