Labor claims submarine plan has ‘no credibility’ as it warns of capability gap

Labor’s defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor will raise the alarm on a looming capability gap for Australia’s submarines in the strongest criticism yet of the government’s handling of the move to acquire a nuclear-powered fleet.

In a signal the opposition is looking to fight the Coalition over its traditional strong point of national security leading into next year’s election, Mr O’Connor will on Tuesday declare the government’s plan “has no credibility” and the “capability gap is obvious for all to see”.

Labor has been ramping up its criticism of Scott Morrison for the way in which he announced the AUKUS defence pact after French President Emmanuel Macron accused the Prime Minister of lying and President Joe Biden conceded the handling of the decision was “clumsy”.

But Mr O’Connor’s speech will be the furthest the opposition has gone in raising concern about the substance of the proposal to build nuclear-powered submarines using American or British technology.

While still supportive of the government’s end goal of acquiring nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS pact, Mr O’Connor will warn “there is no contract, no plans, and any decision is more than 18 months away”.

“Currently AUKUS hasn’t changed anything in terms of our Defence capability, it has just raised questions the government has to date failed to answer,” Mr O’Connor will tell the Submarine Institute of Australia conference, according to a draft of the speech.

“So again, rather than a capability edge, we risk a significant capability gap.”

Australia is facing the capability gap because its current fleet of Collins-class submarines are due to begin going out of service in 2038 and the nuclear-powered boats may not arrive until the 2040s.

Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mike Noonan, last month revealed the six Collins-class submarines, which were built in the 1990s, might need to undergo two complete rebuilds over coming decades to keep them in operation if the nuclear boats were not ready by 2040.

“Given the evidence by the Navy Chief in Senate estimates and views of Defence experts generally the government’s plan has no credibility,” Mr O’Connor will say.

“The capability gap is obvious for all to see.

“Federal Labor has welcomed the decision to acquire nuclear submarines and agree they will be our best option, but at what cost when will they be delivered and what are we to do until then?”

The AUKUS agreement sank a contract with French company Naval Group to deliver a conventionally powered fleet, which France labelled a “stab in the back” before briefly recalling its ambassador from Canberra.

The fallout over the AUKUS announcement dominated Mr Morrison’s trip overseas last week, with the Prime Minister’s office responding to Mr Macron’s lying accusation by leaking a personal text message from the French President.

Mr O’Connor will say that “we have all been witness to the Prime Minister’s mishandling the diplomatic side of this announcement and the subsequent fallout”.

“We have the French, an important ally in the region, feeling betrayed and the American President calling our handling ‘clumsy’,” he will say.

“Rather than a capability edge, I’m afraid to say as things presently stand, risks a significant gap in our underwater capability.

“With the announcement of AUKUS we now start a new proposed submarine program from scratch.”

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong called on the Australian government to conduct an internal review of the handling of the AUKUS announcement, saying it didn’t focus on minimising the blowback.

“I hope those in the leadership of the department and the broader national security community take this opportunity to reflect on that,” she told the Lowy Institute podcast, The Director’s Chair.

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