Former senator fears SA roads could sink AUKUS
A former senator claims inadequate roads and bridges near the Osborne shipyard could stop AUKUS in its tracks.
Former Family First Senator Bob Day AO has warned that inadequate civil infrastructure surrounding the Osborne Naval Shipyard could bring AUKUS to a standstill.
He is calling for a “world-class” motorway from Osborne near Port Adelaide to Melbourne to address bottlenecks and ensure steel and heavy equipment can be delivered to the site rapidly, saying “it’s just ridiculous [for trucks] to be driving down what are basically suburban streets”.
Day is throwing his support behind the planned Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass, believing a gateway bridge over the Port River and Barker Inlet and connecting Osborne to the M2 at Bolivar would solve the problem.
“AUKUS is absolutely crucial both to Australia’s future and also to South Australia from a South Australian industrial base, but it won’t be delivered and can’t be delivered without proper civil infrastructure and support,” Day, who was a Federal Senator for the Family First party from 2014-2016, said.
A state government spokesperson said the Osborne Naval Shipyard workforce was expected to increase significantly, alongside other port, defence and industrial activities in the area.
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“Recognising the need to plan for this growth, the Australian and South Australian governments are jointly funding $15 million over the next two years to investigate priority transport upgrades on the Lefevre Peninsula,” he said.
“Additionally, the Australian and South Australian Governments are delivering a $100 million package of upgrades to ready the Lefevre Peninsula’s road network to support future growth of passenger, freight and defence industry traffic.”
Among the upgrades to the Lefevre Peninsula were the realignment and upgrade of the Victoria Road and Pelican Point Road junction, as well as upgrades to the Victoria Road and Veitch Road junction.
Major construction on the Lefevre Peninsula upgrades was expected to commence in early 2027.
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AUKUS – a trilateral military pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States – is set to transform SA, with a large part of the $368 billion project expected to be spent in Adelaide, where nuclear submarines would be constructed.
Day said he took an immediate interest in AUKUS when it was announced in September 2021, and drawing on his experience as a science technician at the Highways Department (now Infrastructure and Transport Department), began scrutinising municipal and civil infrastructure surrounding Osborne.
Putting on his Highway Department hat, Day found that civil infrastructure in the area was “massively unequipped to handle an industrial project of that size”.
He had flashbacks to the South Australian government’s abandonment of the Metropolitan Adelaide Transport Study (MATS Plan) – which he views as “the biggest policy failure in this state’s history” – and set up the MATS Plan Institute to make sure “the mistakes of the past are not repeated”.
The MATS Plan was a comprehensive transport plan released in 1968 under former Liberal Premier Thomas Playford that envisaged major road and railway projects across metropolitan Adelaide, but it was later abandoned when former Labor Premier Don Dunstan was elected.
“Having AUKUS is one thing, but if you can’t deliver it because your roads are too narrow or you don’t have access to supply chains or housing for people who need to work there, then it won’t be delivered, and we can’t afford to deliver on the submarine project – AUKUS cannot be allowed to fail,” Day said.
“Not only would it undermine Australia’s reputation around the world, but it would also undermine our defence capability, and it would also undermine South Australian people’s confidence in South Australia as a credible base from which to launch these various projects.”
Asked about the importance of AUKUS, Day said that it was about strengthening Australia’s relationship with the United States.
“There’s no argument – Australia is defenceless without the United States,” he said.
“Given the fact that we are 100 per cent reliant on the United States, then it’s incumbent on us to do what they want us to do, and that is to build these submarines.”
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