Albanese government pledges extra $4.6billion for AUKUS shipyard - but critics warn it will make Australia a nuclear target

By ALASDAIR BELLING and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: 06:06, 24 July 2026 | Updated: 06:14, 24 July 2026 The Albanese government has promised an extra $4.6 billion for its AUKUS deal, but experts have raised concerns the funding is a waste of resources and could make Australia a nuclear target.  The package, announced on Friday, will go towards nuclear submarine construction at Osborne, 21km northwest of Adelaide's CBD. The construction yard will be used to build the nuclear-powered vessels as part of the $368billion AUKUS security agreement with the US and UK.  The additional funding will bring total spending on the Osborne site to $8.5billion, supporting construction and development activities.  But Mark Beeson, an AUKUS critic and adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney's Australia-China Relations Institute, criticised the additional funding.  'Defence has got an appalling record of acquisitions,' he told the Daily Mail. 'They're always late, they're always over budget and they never perform as they're supposed to, and this is going to be no different, but on a larger scale. 'Drone technology – particularly undersea drones – is advancing at such a rapid rate that the submarines will be out of date next year.' Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attend the Labor National Conference after announcing an extra $4.6billion in AUKUS-related spending  The funds will help construct a shipyard outside Adelaide to build nuclear-powered vessels (Pictured, Virginia-class USS North Carolina docked at port in Rockingham near Perth) 'They'll be easier to find and destroy, and the drones that destroy them will cost a fraction of the price of these submarines.' Professor Beeson added that, more broadly, the pact may be intended to keep Australia safe but has the opposite effect when it comes to relations with China.  'Something that's meant to keep us safe is actually making us a nuclear target and making us less safe than ever,' he said. 'The prospect of nuclear-armed submarines being based in Perth and now Adelaide is a concern [for China].  'That's what makes them nuclear targets, as well as other American facilities in Australia, such as Pine Gap and North West Cape. They'd get nuked as well.  'I think AUKUS is the most ill-conceived, misguided, strategically illiterate initiative you could possibly think of.'  According to current estimates, the second-hand submarines due under the AUKUS deal will arrive in Australia during the 2030s. The promised new vessels are not expected to be ready until the early 2040s.  SA Premier Peter Malinauskas was positive about the funding on Friday, telling reporters in Adelaide the shipyard – where there are currently about 1,100 workers employed – was a huge opportunity. Mark Beeson has called the AUKUS initiative 'ill-conceived' and 'misguided' 'It is difficult to comprehend the scale of the billions of dollars of investment at Osborne to enable us to build the most complex machines on the planet,' he said. 'We are pleased to work in close partnership with the Albanese Government to deliver the crucial infrastructure needed and look forward to seeing young South Australians learning high value nuclear skills at Osborne within the next two years.' But rank and file members of Labor have said they want to drop AUKUS from the party platform, with the funding announcement coinciding with the ALP's national conference this week. Marcus Strom from Labor Against War said the submarine deal needed to be axed to free up funds for reform measures. 'If the Labor Party is serious about defeating the hot-air challenge from One Nation over lack of investment in infrastructure, it should be putting that sort of money into meaningful jobs, not jobs in the war industry,' he told AAP on Friday. 'This is a chimera of opportunity for jobs. The much better jobs, longer-term jobs [are] in renewables, advanced manufacturing, and the health industry.'  Under the AUKUS pact, Australia will buy used nuclear submarines from the US, before locally built vessels are brought online. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese discussed AUKUS with newly elected UK counterpart Andy Burnham during a call on Thursday to congratulate him on his appointment and invite him to visit Australia. Richard Marles and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas are pictured with British and US delegates at Osborne Shipyard in 2024  Is investing billions in AUKUS submarines making Australia safer or risking our future? What's your view?AUKUS is expected to be debated on the floor of Labor's national conference on the final day, Saturday. While delegates agreed on AUKUS at the party's previous conference in 2023, members are optimistic about a change in stance. Defence Minister Richard Marles said there was 'definitely an opportunity' for AUKUS to be publicly debated at the national conference, but pointed to the positive vote three years ago. 'Seventy-five per cent of the floor supported AUKUS, so this was not close, and that's the position of the party right now,' he told ABC Radio. 'I understand that this is a huge public expenditure, and so people are entitled to raise questions and have debates, and I stand ready to do those debates. 'But at the same time, we are putting this in place.' Dozens of anti-AUKUS protesters were out the front of the Adelaide Convention Centre in hazmat suits and blaring sirens, urging Labor to drop support for the pact. Gambling reform measures will also be brought to the conference floor, with rank and file members urging the government to go further on the issue. Amendments have called for a national regulator to better protect vulnerable people from gambling harms.