Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently, I had the pleasure as co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS to welcome members of the UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee to Parliament House. It was a powerful reminder that the AUKUS partnership is not just a policy or a simple handshake agreement. It is a relationship between people, parliaments and communities that share values, trust and ideas. The conversations I had reaffirmed what the Geelong treaty embodies: a 50-year commitment to industrial cooperation, technological exchange and mutual security.

That is why today I speak in strong support of the Customs Tariff Amendment (Geelong Treaty Implementation) Bill 2025, legislation that brings to life one of the most significant defence partnerships in our nation's history. This bill gives domestic effect to the Geelong treaty, signed on 26 July 2025 by the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, and the UK Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey. It marks a moment of deep renewal between two nations whose friendship pre-dates Federation but now finds new expression in shared capability, shared technology and shared purpose under AUKUS.

Our relationship with the United Kingdom is among our oldest. We have fought together across Europe, Africa and Asia and built together and grown together as nations. Now, through AUKUS, that historic bond carries a contemporary, strategic weight deep into the 21st century.

The Geelong treaty represents the most significant bilateral agreement between Australia and the UK since 1901. It sets the foundation for the design, construction, operation, sustainment and eventual deployment of a new class of conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines, the SSN-AUKUS, and ensures both our nations' navies will sail side by side for generations to come, protecting both of our island homes. The treaty is a cornerstone of AUKUS Pillar I, the submarine program that will create over 20,000 high-skill jobs in Australia through the design and construction of these vessels. Those jobs will not just be in shipyards; they will span engineering, science, cyber, welding, nuclear stewardship, logistics and advanced manufacturing. Across our TAFEs, universities and research institutes, new education pathways are opening that will link directly into these AUKUS jobs. Students in high school today will graduate into apprenticeships and degrees tailored to AUKUS industries: nuclear engineering streams, maritime systems training and defence technology courses developed through partnership between government and education providers. These pathways mean that a student in my electorate of Spence, Geelong or Osborne can see a clear line from the classroom to a career in sovereign shipbuilding and defence innovation.

The Geelong treaty cements that pipeline. It supports the growth of the workforce, infrastructure and regulatory systems required to build and sustain our submarines here in Australia. It also enables the rotational presence of a UK Astute-class submarine as part of the Submarine Rotational Force - West in Perth. This will be a training ground for our sailors and technicians and a living classroom for the transfer of skills and knowledge. Beyond the strategic benefits, the treaty delivers real economic and commercial benefits through trade, information sharing and joint procurement arrangements. It will allow both countries to share materials and equipment freely under the treaty framework without additional tariffs adding cost to the trade exchange. That is why this bill is so important. It provides the legislative mechanism to apply a free rate of duty for goods imported for use under the Geelong treaty. It amends the Customs Tariff Act 1995 by inserting a new item, item 58A, ensuring that the movement of materials under AUKUS is swift, efficient and cost neutral. There are no revenue implications from this change. It delivers clarity and readiness and is a necessary step before Australia can declare it has completed its domestic obligations for the treaty to enter into force later this year.

When I welcomed the UK Defence Select Committee to Parliament House as co-chair of Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS, I was struck by how aligned we are on the fundamentals: safety, sovereignty, transparency and the long game required to do this right. Doing it right means maintaining the highest safeguards and non-proliferation standards, a culture of safety in every workshop and laboratory and an unwavering commitment to the communities that will host these capabilities. Doing it right means building partnerships with industry and education providers and aligning curricula, equipment and placements so that graduates are job ready on day one. Doing it right means ensuring small- and medium-sized Australian businesses can access the opportunities that come with AUKUS, with capability uplift, quality accreditation and payment terms that let small firms scale into global supply chains. Extensive consultation has been undertaken across the Commonwealth with the Department of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Treasury, Finance, the Attorney-General's Department, the Australian Submarine Agency, Border Force and nuclear safety bodies. All agencies support the implementation of this treaty and the amendments contained in this bill.

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has already held public hearings, receiving a range of submissions from industry and the public. That consultation shows a healthy engagement with his national endeavour—an endeavour that belongs not to one government or party but to the nation itself. This is a 50-year undertaking. It is a project that will span decades of policy, decades of people and decades of progress. The AUKUS program is already building momentum across our regions. From Perth to Adelaide to Geelong, in TAFE campuses—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:34 to 12:45

As I was saying, the AUKUS program is already building momentum across our regions. From Perth to Adelaide to Geelong, in TAFE campuses and university hubs across the nation, young Australians are preparing for a new era of opportunity. Every course, every apprenticeship and every partnership that flows from AUKUS builds a pipeline of skills and careers for decades to come. These aren't just defence jobs; they are jobs that will strengthen advanced manufacturing, robotics, AI and engineering industries across Australia.

That is why the Geelong treaty is so vital. It ties our education system, our workforce and our industrial base together in service of a shared national mission. The treaty also deepens our people-to-people connections. As we welcome UK sailors, engineers and scientists to our shores, Australian workers and students will train and work in the UK, creating knowledge, sharing and cooperation that will stand the test of time. As its name suggests, this treaty was signed in Geelong, and fittingly so—it is a city with a heritage of industry and innovation. The treaty represents the same spirit that built our manufacturing base and our naval tradition. It reminds us that nation building is never a thing of the past; it is an ongoing responsibility.

The Geelong treaty is how we continue to carry that responsibility forward into the 21st century. It is how we equip our nation to defend our interests, strengthen our alliances and grow our economy through technological excellence and people power. It's how we ensure that the next generation of Australians, from our classrooms to our shipyards, inherits a country that is secure, prosperous and respected. That is why this parliament should support the passage of this bill without delay. The Geelong treaty will shape our strategic landscape for the next half-century. It is not merely about submarines; it is about sovereignty, skills and shared security. I commend this bill to the House.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This legislation is, on one level, not necessarily legislation that will change the universe. The flip side is that it's still an important part of the implementation regime associated with the AUKUS submarines project, and it remains an important part of that architecture, because Australia needs to be a trusted partner when working with other nations, particularly when we're sharing different pieces of technology, to ensure that we're a partner trusted to be able to build the sorts of technology we need to defend the future of this country.

Of course, the Geelong treaty implementation simply provides a pathway for the governments of the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Northern Ireland to be able to cooperate as part of the nuclear-powered submarine partnership collaboration with the Commonwealth of Australia. But, when it comes down to it, this bill is about something far bigger. It's about the enabling legislation for what is going to be required if we're going to defend ourselves in the 21st century.

In the period after the Cold War, this nation has progressively relaxed its security premium and taken a false sense of complacency about the challenges it faces. We're a nation that is facing the most challenging environment since the Second World War—that is the view of the white paper of the Department of Defence—and we're acutely aware of the fact that we're exposed to many fronts as a consequence of relaxing our approach to security.

It doesn't matter what government is in office, we never, as part of a trade-off of the priorities of the Commonwealth, want to overspend on security, because every dollar has to come from taxpayers, but we do need to make sure that we achieve the first objective of the Commonwealth, which is to defend the Australian homeland, this continent and our territories so that we can be safe and secure and, more importantly, help and support other countries in our region and, in particular, with our beneficence and our standing, be able to support and secure their sovereignty as well.

That's why having different technologies is going to be so important in meeting the challenges of the 21st century and the potential for kinetic war. Of course, we never want that to happen. But we know, from the actions of foreign governments and nonstate actors that we are seeing an increasing level of grey zone activity, often through things like cybersecurity threats and attacks on other essential infrastructure, that the era of complacency we have enjoyed must come to an end. Part of that is understanding how we are going to work with our allies to project our capacity if required in the event of conflict and, more importantly, making sure we have the security of the technology we are going to need to do so. That obviously is where the AUKUS regime comes in, not just around the role of submarines but also the potential for partnerships and foreign technologies we can build into the capacity of the ADF.

We should not be complacent about this issue. There should be a very active interest from this parliament because it goes to the core of the role of this nation, its government and how it will be a partner with foreign nations. Additionally, it is a pathway to support and grow industries in different parts of our nation, with Geelong being one of them, South Australia being another, and other parts of the country, particularly Western Australia, being part beneficiaries of them too. We have to harness that potential so we are building up our capacity, not just our defence capacity but our skills capacity, and take that through to improving overall capacity to build that industrial development. It reminds me of only the other day when I was at Monash University, my alma mater. Monash University is looking at companies like Rolls Royce, who, of course, provide things like nuclear technology and propulsion technology to be part of submarines that could also be used for other purposes, including civil nuclear power as well. But one of the frustrations is they are not getting the clear signals from this government or at a state level to deliver the technology that Australians desperately need.

This legislation does provide a very clear signal to the marketplace and to companies like Rolls Royce about how they can be part of the solution and build up the technology to build out Australia's defence capacity. They also have a place to build out our civilian capacity as well. Off the back of things like the AUKUS submarine project, there is a natural, logical conclusion that we should be investing in a civilian nuclear program to build out the capacity for Australia's clean industrial growth. Unfortunately, that falls on deaf ears from the ideologues in the Labor Party who simply oppose nuclear at all costs. But we will all pay a very heavy price through the government's mad pursuit of looking only ever through the lens of renewables rather than taking a rational, informed energy mix approach which recognises the critical role of existing technologies and the decommissioning of them over time.

The state governments say one thing and do the complete opposite. They talk renewables then they underwrite secret contracts between the New South Wales and Victorian governments and coal generators. For the extraction of gas, you need to build a baseload potential for the future with renewables as part of that conversation both at a household level and sometimes an industrial level as well, because our interest must be how are we're going to build the strength of our great country and its future. We can then go on and create the well-paying jobs so Australians can get the incomes they need to then buy the homes they need to support themselves and their families, and put them in a financial position to retire with security.

Some of us will never stop fighting for the future of this country. Deputy Speaker Boyce, I know you are one and I know there are other members in this chamber who will always fight for the future of the country. Sometimes we have a difference of opinion about what that is, but, if it is to be a nation that is secure, a nation that has the capacity to stand up for itself and its confidence, a nation that can help support other countries and secure their sovereignty and rights to maintain free and independent in our region, and one that is able to provide the economic opportunity for future generations of Australia, that is something we should be immensely proud to fight for.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.