Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

These bills, the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Bill 2023 and the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2023, enable a critical part of AUKUS. AUKUS, as we know, is a multigenerational nation-building task that has bipartisan support in the House. It was a coalition government, under former prime minister Morrison, that founded AUKUS with the US president, Joe Biden, and the then UK prime minister, Boris Johnson.

Since the change of government here and in the UK, AUKUS has progressed, and it's great to see that because speed is of the essence. By the early 2030s Australia needs to be sovereign ready. We need to be able to own, operate and maintain a nuclear reactor which will sit inside the Virginia class submarines that we're purchasing from the United States, and we also need to be able to operate our own submarines, SSN-AUKUS, which will be produced here in Australia. Speed is of the essence, so we support this bill and, in principle, support sensible amendments following the scrutiny by the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, which reported in May. Having these Virginia class submarines is vital to our long-term defence capability. They're the best in the world. They are the apex predators of the deep, and they will help keep Australia safe. Importantly for our regional partners, AUKUS will help to uphold our collective peace and prosperity. We enjoy good relationships with our neighbours, and it's really important that they understand that AUKUS is about our collective security, not just that of Australia, the US and the UK.

It's in the best interests of our nation that we see AUKUS succeed, and we're going to need a lot of young Australians to get involved. We need the submariners of the future. We need the apprentices. We need people to start small businesses that will build out the supply chain. A lot of that work will happen in Perth and Adelaide. HMAS Stirling will be where our submarines operate from, but we'll also build our SSN-AUKUS in Osborne in South Australia. Across the country we need resilience. The way we achieve that is by having a dynamic supply chain, and, to quote Premier Malinauskas in South Australia, we have six states and two territories; this is one mission for all of us, and each state and territory has a role to play.

I'm excited to see what this does for Australian businesses as we rebuild the Australian defence industry. We're headed towards the sovereign-ready milestone in the early 2030s. We've got the nearest gate, 2027, which will be the establishment of Submarine Rotational Force-West just to the north of my electorate of Canning. I'm very proud to represent not just a number of Royal Australian Navy members who are submariners themselves but also a growing number of people who are involved with AUKUS itself. One of the dads at a soccer match a couple of weeks ago was telling me how he's a fitter. He's 30 years old and a former Army engineer. He put his name online to consider becoming part of the AUKUS project and got a phone call within 24 hours with, basically, a job offer and the possibility of living in Hawaii for a certain period of time—which, I've got to say, is a pretty nice offer, and it's a well-paid job too.

These are the sorts of jobs that we'll need for 30 years. For families who are feeling the pressure from FIFO work—I know a lot of families from my children's school classes where the dad, mainly, spends half the year away on mine sites—the opportunity to work in the defence industry in Perth itself is very enticing. So I encourage people to consider those pathways offered by AUKUS.

This bill establishes a nuclear safety framework, the regulatory framework for establishing AUKUS. If we're to operate these nuclear submarines, if we're to operate facilities and if we're to handle material, then those activities need to be regulated. This bill establishes a regulator within defence itself, and it will be governed to the highest standards because we need to demonstrate to the United States and the UK that we can be trusted with their sensitive intellectual property, these reactors, and that we are building up the capability to make sure that the whole enterprise is safe and secure. That's what these bills do. It's a big step forward for Australia so that we can operate these nuclear submarines, and it's part of several tranches of legislation required to implement and support AUKUS.

As I've discussed already in my remarks, this bill establishes a framework to ensure Australia promotes, regulates and maintains the highest level of nuclear safety in relation to our future submarines. Its focus is on regulating activities on Australia's own nuclear powered submarines and facilities. It does not apply to conduct on board the UK and US ones.

The past few weeks have been great for Perth because we've had the USS Hawaii, a Virginia class submarine, and the USS Emory S Land, a submarine tender, at HMAS Stirling. It's the first time in Australia's history that we've had maintenance be done on a US submarine within our port, and that's what happened at HMAS Stirling. Embedded in both vessels were young Australians who have been training with the Americans. I met a young naval officer who had successfully completed their nuclear submariner course for officers, and he was entrusted with parking the vessel alongside the wharf at HMAS Stirling, which was a big honour, and he did it to a good standard, as the CO of the vessel told us.

It was great to also see a lot of young sailors on the USS Emory S Land, the tender, which is basically like a floating factory. The logistical power these vessels have is amazing, and they're doing their bit to keep US submarines running. It was great to see all those things, and, of course, that's why these bills are being enacted. We need to have a framework so that, as these visits step up, leading to 2027—and when we start to have a more permanent presence of US and UK submarines from 2027 and when we get our own Virgina class submarines from 2030—we can do our things safely.

In short, we support these bills. We want to move faster, and I think there is definitely room for improvement with the government. We want to see more investment into WA sooner. There are a lot of outstanding issues around HMAS Stirling, and I've met with the local governments in the area. There's obviously a housing shortage. We're going to have a lot more people moving to Australia from the US and the UK, but, also, we're going to see more naval personnel into the AUKUS catchment area, which is the City of Rockingham principally but also the surrounding local government areas as well. So we need more houses built, and that's a task for the local and state governments, but it definitely needs federal leadership, so we're calling on the government to do more about the housing shortage.

There's also a general infrastructure deficit in Western Australia. Our hospitals' ramping hours are through the roof—much higher that when the Labor state government came to power, in 2017. So we want to see more investment in our hospitals, particularly in the Rockingham hospital and the Peel Health Campus. Both are within the AUKUS catchment and will service the families who move to WA to work at HMAS Stirling or in the AUKUS supply chain. So we need more investment in our hospitals.

Of course, there's congestion. We've had 1.4 million people come to Australia since Q1 of 2022, and we're feeling it. A normal journey up to Perth probably used to take about 70 minutes on any given morning, and it's now taking 90 minutes, which is just too long. There is a productivity cost. People are not at their desks or their factories or their place of work doing the jobs they are paid to do and there is also cost a family life. No-one wants to spend any longer sitting traffic away from their families, so investment in roads is critical, particularly around HMAS Stirling. A lot of locals are worried not only about the number of people who are going to be driving through but also the big trucks while building. We want to see more houses, more investment in hospitals and more investment in roads and other supporting infrastructure. There is a lot to be done but we will support this bill because we believe it is in the best interests of Australia, of the US, the UK and our region. This is not only about the collective security but also about securing the future as much as the present of the young kids up there behind me in the gallery

Debate adjourned.