Give Trump ‘a new Pine Gap', say experts claiming AUKUS go-slow
Australia made the first of six $US500 million ($770 million) payments to boost the capacity of the US submarine industry earlier this year as part of the $368 billion deal, and has hosted visiting American vessels.
The US informed Australia about a 30-day review of the pact weeks ago, which became public on Thursday. Defence Minister Richard Marles said he welcomed the review. 'It's something which is perfectly natural for an incoming administration to do,' he said on the ABC.
Senior Australian government sources, not permitted to speak publicly, said the US stood to gain from AUKUS and believed the review might be designed to gain leverage as Washington pushed Australia to spend more on defence.
Former US ambassador Joe Hockey said bases should be expanded into locations at which the US could perform large volumes of submarine maintenance to help the US overturn a backlog crippling its ability to keep subs in operation.
'It would be enormously important to the Americans and allow for a significant increase in their capability and deterrence value in the region,' Hockey told this masthead. 'Australia is lagging behind.'
The man central to the US' AUKUS review, defence official Elbridge Colby, has previously expressed reservations about handing over nuclear submarines in the early 2030s at the same time as a potential confrontation between China and Taiwan may demand all the US' firepower.
Colby has this year made more positive remarks about AUKUS' first pillar. The review was instituted by Colby, not the White House.
But Colby's focus on war-readiness in the case of a conflict with China – which is far from guaranteed, and may not draw in Australia – has spurred calls to make the AUKUS deal more useful for its short-term focus on China.
Pezzullo, who helmed the 2009 defence white paper, said the Henderson base should be transformed into a joint facility.
'Better still, Australia could establish this shipyard, by treaty, as a joint Australian-US facility, in recognition of its vital role in the alliance, which could be at least as significant as the contribution of the Pine Gap satellite ground station,' he wrote in an article for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank last month. In 2023, the Albanese government dismissed Pezzullo for exerting undue political influence under the previous Coalition government.
'Being able to operate routinely in the Indian Ocean without having to transit the congested littoral waters of Southeast Asia and in the Western Pacific in times of tension and conflict is of immense strategic value to the US,' Pezzullo wrote.
Such a move would likely be contentious and trigger concerns, particularly on the left, about Australian sovereignty and hewing more closely to the US at a time when Western allies and citizens are growing more doubtful about US President Donald Trump's reliability.
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But Shoebridge said Australia was already deeply enmeshed in US military architecture via Pine Gap, a critical intelligence facility near Alice Springs, and the presence of US Marines in Darwin, approved by former prime minister Julia Gillard.
'I think it would be getting to a level with Pine Gap,' Shoebridge said, backing the idea of a bigger plan for Henderson and criticising Labor for the speed of decision-making and funding on AUKUS milestones.
'If we're not doing those long lead-time items, how can we still tell the Americans we are serious about AUKUS?'
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