Preparing WA for nuclear-powered subs — Questioning the Australian Submarine Agency

Sterling in particular what are the key Milestones um that we should be expecting to monitor in terms of Sterling being ready to receive the submarine rotational force in 2027 and I'm happy for you to take that on notice but it would be good just to have that mapped out so at subsequent estimates we can come back and actually track that progress against those Milestones so we have a key Milestone later this year I me and I indicated that in the opening statement with a sended a submarine tender maintenance period which will be conducted at Sterling around about the August period the US Virginia um that's never been conducted before outside of us home territory and I can get Admiral Buckley to talk in further detail then there's obviously the 2027 Milestone but so Senator Admiral Buckley head of nuclear submarine capability so specifically in regards to Sterling and submarine rotational forces West as Admiral me alluded to uh the tender maintenance period is the first major Milestone it's about a 3- we activity where a submarine tender ship that'll be based out of Guam will sail down to to Sterling um supporting a Virginia class submarine uh we're working very closely with the US in particular now on exactly how our Sailors who are in Guam and around 20 industry Personnel in Pearl Harbor will contribute directly to that activity and there's a number of other activities as you'd expect building towards that capability um one of the main purposes of that is establishing some strong baselines on um maintenance and sustainment activities testing our supply chain links with the US with organizations such as navsa and so on um so it's a very significant opportunity for us to start to do some um maintenance both in terms of on the submarine itself but also shopto ship kind of Maintenance with our with our Fleet support unit and work uh workstations ashore at the same time as well as that's happening at our H Sterling we've commenced uh the first stages of works there you alluded to um seg uh before um so we've commenced uh the remediation site Works uh now underway for the first um the first phase of priority works and uh we're also now um uh in well into the design for what we need to achieve in 2027 with a plan to start that next stage of work in q1 2025 senator okay and still on track for that uh starting q1 yes Senator that that work is on track in accordance with the uh seg delivery plan sure things that are beyond the Commonwealth's control such as local government approvals State approvals for whatever aspect of road infrastructure considerations around nuclear sub whatever the consideration is uh what's the state of Engagement with those levels of government uh and are you confident that they are on board and on track Senator we uh I might have alluded to this at the last estimates but we uh we established a Steering group with the West Australian government um I co-chair that with a um an official um from Minister Papa's Department he's amongst many of his roles his portfolio includes you know defense engagement and Industry um that that Steering group has representation um from the ASA and other parts of Defense but also across wa government it also has a representation um from the uh South they call the southeast council's group of local governments so in terms of Western Australia we we meet um you know about every other month I'm over there every month so we've got very strong connected fiber with wa government and also down with the three or four main councils Rockingham in particular um to ensure that so at this particular point in time Senator I'm confident we've got very strong links with wa we've had uh excellent uh working relationships with with the wa government and and the local councils um not withstanding we've got a very Steep Hill to climb but those connective tissues are are well in place sure are there any senator in addition um we've been working very closely on the past 18 months to two years with the Department of environment for environmental approvals uh and also with the uh severan regulator our paner in order to achieve a nuclear license mhm um are there any issues within the federal government's purview where you're awaiting a decision at this stage or where you see there may be potential delays uh Senator just in terms of uh Sterling you mentioned the Parliamentary Works committee before I I would just note that the first thing we needed to do was to get parliamentary Works committee approval SE took that forward uh for the remediation site works that that uh approval was uh was granted by by the committee so our you know our initial engagement um achieve the outcome that that we required in that in that particular case so when do you next have to come before the PWC uh we've got a bit of work in hand with with seg now on precisely how the next approach uh is is required I I'll just have to take that on notice Senator so I can get you the the specific uh details from the you know from the delivery manager sure

Channel: Senator David Fawcett

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Length: 5min 35sec (335 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2024