What could Australians buy for the cost of a nuclear sub?

Reprinted from the Freedom Socialist Party Website

What could Australians buy for the cost of a nuclear sub?

 

AUKUS (military pact between Australia, United Kingdom and U.S.) allows the Aussie government to purchase nuclear submarines. What a waste of billions of dollars. Let’s look at the many ways to better spend this money.

 

Alison ThorneDecember 2023

 

Artist's rendition. CREDIT: BAE Systems

 

Australians are fed up with the Albanese Labor government crying poor. Public workers get below-inflation pay offers and people relying on unemployment benefits sink deeper into poverty. Aboriginal Legal Services are obscenely underfunded. Childcare fees increase faster than wages, and inadequate subsidies provide struggling parents no relief. Many women retire poor because of the federal government’s failure to pay contributions on paid parental leave. It claims it wants to contribute “when budget circumstances permit.”

 

This same government has no compunction when it comes to lavishing money on the military. It jacked up spending by 7% this year to $52.6 billion. The amount allocated for nuclear submarines, as part of the AUKUS pact, is $368 billion over 30 years.

 

AUKUS, a military alliance between Australia, the UK and U.S., was signed off in 2021 by the previous Coalition government and supported by Labor. It is aimed squarely at an economically rising China. The U.S. ruling class is determined to hold onto its imperialist dominance, whatever the cost. Australia, a close ally, is in lockstep with this dangerous arms escalation in its region.

 

It’s been full steam ahead for AUKUS since Australian Prime Minister Albanese’s election. In March he jetted into San Diego, California, to meet with President Biden and UK Prime Minister Sunak to advance the purchase of the subs.

 

The Albanese government enjoys strong support from the Coalition, with opposition leader Peter Dutton proposing cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme to pay for these underwater behemoths!

 

Working class priorities

 

Just imagine some alternative projects that $368 billion dollars could be spent on. Tertiary education is crying out for public funding. Instead, the chief of Universities Australia calls for defence internships and visited Washington, D.C., in April to discuss how the sector could train specialists to support AUKUS.

 

Universities rely heavily on commercial partnerships with big business, and the sector is bedevilled by cost-cutting, rampant casualisation, overcrowded classes and increased tuition fees.

 

Since the Hawke Labor government abolished free education in the late 1980s, students have relied on loans. Long known as the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, the current version is the Higher Education Loan Program. Student loans are indexed annually and this year increased by 7.1%, increasing the collective debt of three million university graduates by $5 billion!

 

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work estimates that it would cost $3.1 billion per year to make undergraduate education free for all citizens and permanent residents. Money for education, not nuclear subs!

 

With climate warming and extreme weather events becoming more frequent, direct investment in carbon reduction measures should be a national priority. The Maritime Union of Australia calls for the submarine funds to be redirected to building renewable energy and offshore wind turbines.

 

Spending to strengthen community resilience and preparedness for storms, floods and bushfires is urgently needed. Three years after the catastrophic 2019/20 Black Summer fire season, almost 2,000 fire trucks in New South Wales still do not meet the safety standards recommended by the post disaster inquiry.

 

Now faced with an El Niño climate pattern, the risk of another dangerous fire season looms. But New South Wales Rural Fire Service currently owns one large air tanker — Australia’s only firefighting plane. Other equipment is leased from overseas. With the fire season starting earlier in Australia and going for longer in the northern hemisphere, a publicly owned national fleet of water-bombing planes is urgently needed to fight fires. Money for community safety infrastructure, not for AUKUS!

 

Growing opposition

 

Working people are questioning both the necessity for and the massive price tag of the eight nuclear submarines. A poll by The Guardian in March 2023 found that just 20% of respondents thought China was a “threat to be confronted,” and only 25% were willing to pay the massive bill. A larger survey by the Lowy Institute, conducted at the same time, produced almost identical results.

 

These polls are welcome, indicating that there is real potential for building a movement to oppose AUKUS.

 

Every time the government moans that there is no money for public housing, including in remote Aboriginal communities, or that it is too costly to bring dental care into Medicare, point to the bloated military spending.

 

Money for health, education, welfare, housing, disability services, childcare, aged care and the environment. Scrap AUKUS. End the military escalation in the Indo-Pacific!

 

One nuclear submarine costs as much as: a year of undergraduate education for all citizens and permanent residents (Source: Australia Institute’s Centre For Future Work); plus fifty state-of-the-art firefighting air tankers (Source: Sept. 9, 2023 article in EuroNews, ); plus 20,000 homes (based on figures from the Housing Australia Future Fund).