TASSIE COULD HELP OUT SUB BUILD
INTERNATIONALLY observers will be examining the ramifications of the trilateral agreement between the US, UK and Australia. Yesterday it was announced that Australia would tear up its $90bn deal with France and acquire nuclear-powered submarines. As part of the new deal, the US and UK will share their nuclear technology and the submarines will be built in Adelaide.
From a local perspective, as a boatbuilding state with advanced manufacturing capabilities and aspirations, if there is potential for Tasmanian businesses to participate in aspects of the submarine build, the move will be welcomed.
It follows a similar attempt by Premier Peter Gutwein last year who scrapped a contract for the $850m replacement of the TT Line’s Spirit of Tasmania vessels. He established a task force to see if there was better local opportunity. Ultimately the task force discovered that the Finnish company originally engaged provided the only solution for the build, but that there was opportunity for fit-out to be done in Tasmania.
From a global perspective, PM Scott Morrison’s nuclear power submarine deal sends a strong message about Australia’s concern about rising hostilities with China. Even though these submarines are only nuclearpowered and Australia is still not allowed to have nuclear weapons, it will reopen a longstanding debate about the potential use of nuclear technology in our country, which has long been an exporter of uranium.
No doubt there will be much debate in coming days and weeks, but Mr Morrison has signposted to the world who Australia intends on siding with should things escalate.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE
Meanwhile on the Apple Isle the debate continues over how Tasmania balances its need to take advantage of our natural environment while also passionately protecting it.
As others want to get a taste of our island home, the challenge is to stop ourselves from being loved to death so that the very thing that makes us desirable is not destroyed.
That battle is playing out in the Lake Malbena project, which was dealt a massive blow this week after the Full Court of the Supreme Court sided with the Wilderness Society over plans for a standing camp in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.
The Tasmanian government wants to open up its national parks to commercial projects and this plan, which includes helicopter flights to the World Heritage Area by developer Wild Drake, is the test case that will determine what happens elsewhere.
But with more avenues for appeal open, the war is far from over.