October 24, 2023
Australia will push ahead with its version of the trade controls legislation needed to cement the AUKUS submarines deal as Anthony Albanese lobbies American lawmakers to do their part.
The Government will put forward laws to streamline Australia’s information and technology sharing arrangements with the United States under AUKUS to Parliament as early as this year.
Mr Albanese is expected to make the pledge for the new laws when he meets President Joe Biden for formal talks on Wednesday while also seeking progress on the key legislation being enacted in the US.
An address to Congress is off the cards during Mr Albanese’s four-day visit to Washington with the Republicans’ ongoing turmoil over choosing a new Speaker.
However, the Prime Minister met some legislators on Monday afternoon local time and flagged plans to speak with others throughout the rest of the week.
“We’re very confident that those discussions have been very productive,” he said.
“The AUKUS arrangements are in the interest of Australia, to play our role. We don’t seek to just be someone who is watching; we seek as well to play a role in security in the Indo-Pacific.
“With the legislators that I’ve spoken to here in the United States, and I’ve had meetings with them in Australia, I’ve had meetings with them in Vilnius, I’ve been with them in various locations … they not only get that, they support it. And they support it very strongly, and that has been across the board whether they be Democrat or Republican.”
Some US congressional representatives have expressed concerns about the country selling between three and five of its Virginia class submarines to Australia when the rate of building the nuclear-powered boats is already falling behind targets.
Mr Biden is currently urging Congress to pass a $105 billion military spending package that includes $3.4 billion for the submarine program, along with support for Israel and Ukraine.
Australia has also promised to put some $3 billion into the US submarine yards.
Mr Albanese said that amount was appropriate and would lead to Australians being trained inbuilding the submarines and the technology used.
Shadow Home Affairs minister James Paterson said there was still a lot of heavy lifting to do on the regulatory front.
“I’m very concerned about not removing those regulatory obstacles to the sharing of intellectual property, to the trafficking of arms, to intelligence sharing, to the movement of people, to the movement of capital,” he said.
“All of those things are barriers to the success of AUKUS and nothing has passed Congress yet to do that.”
Parliament is already considering the first tranche of AUKUS-related legislation, laws that would prevent the unwanted transfer of sensitive defence information to foreign militaries.
