Achi news desk-
Where do the workers come from? Let’s say it again: where do the workers come from?
It is a question that should be asked every day and at every stage of any debate about Australian industry, including Defence. The unemployment rate is 3.7%, the employment-to-population ratio is well below record levels, the participation rate is 66.7%, and there are labor shortages across a host of essential occupations (the latest – a shortage of almost 100,000 in residential construction). But idiot protectionism is still rampant.
Last week the government announced it was giving the British $4.6 billion over a decade to help them expand the ability to provide components for AUKUS submarines (the new ones, not the second-hand Dodgy Bros ones from the Americans which will arrive in the 2030s). That is apart from the $4.53 billion we will give the Americans to expand their production lines (who, like the Brits, are also suffering from a labor shortage).
The announcement unleashed a strange collection of critics. Social media, inevitably, lit up. The Greens’ (usually sensible) David Shoebridge went completely, erm, over the top, tweeting “AUKUS is bleeding Australia dry“. Barnaby Joyce claimed it was “beyond belief” and that we should be developing our own nuclear industry. One of the Sky News right-wingers demanded of Defense Minister Richard Marles, “We are paying the UK to do our nuclear work for us. Why not reverse your nuclear policy and do it here?”
Nothing has changed in the fundamentally flawed nature of AUKUS. It remains the most expensive announcement in Australian political history, a stunt by a desperate Scott Morrison to bind Labor which failed miserably, at a cost of what will be hundreds of billions of dollars. No rationale for these purpose-built nuclear ships – for which it is unlikely we will ever have enough crews or maintenance workers – has ever been expressed beyond what amounts to “China boat”. The unfortunate Marles, a man who would be out of his depth in a rapidly drying pool, has never explained why Australia needs nuclear submarines.
But if we are going to have such boats, paying other countries to make them is by far the cheaper option, given that they already have the infrastructure, the workforces, the regulatory standards and the expertise — how however stressed they are at the moment. The only thing wrong with the AUKUS procurement plan is that we insist on assembling some of these boats, rather than outsourcing all the work.
If there is a strategic rationale for nuclear powered submarines then the most efficient way to procure them would be to ask the French to switch back to their now abandoned Navy Group nuclear submarine based on it, and built them all in. Cherbourg.
AUKUS protectionist critics would probably like Australia to try to poach a limited talent base from the Americans and British to move to Adelaide, with suitable pay and relocation expenses, to start working in a whole new industry in which we have no expertise , infrastructure or regulatory framework. How much more would that cost taxpayers, and how much longer would that take for boats that won’t even get wet until our children run the country?
The same idiotic protectionism can be seen on a smaller scale in today’s blatant Nine press beating after a private Sydney company bought Chinese buses. That prompted The Sydney Morning Herald — deliberately combining the actions of a private company with the NSW government — to attack the Minns government for failing to honor its election promise to build trains and buses here. (How Chris Minns and co were supposed to set up a whole new heavy manufacturing industry in 12 months is another mystery.)
In essence, the Herald want NSW taxpayers to spend a lot of money building things that are much cheaper to buy offshore, in order to drag workers away from other vital industries such as home building, caring for our older people, cyber security, providing mental health services , taking care of our children and building critical energy infrastructure and other projects suffering from labor shortages. All to – what? Boasting that NSW builds buses? Make NSW a big bus power? Become the southern hemisphere’s biggest train builder?
The stupidity is astounding. Where do the workers come from? Do you want buses? Trains? Nuclear power plants? Nuclear submarines? Do you want to become a renewable power? Explain where the workers come from.
Should Australia be paying the US and UK to build our subsidiaries? Let us know what you think by writing to [email protected]. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
