Labor has announced its alternative approach to acquiring the Future Submarines, stating that they should be built, maintained and sustained in Australia.

“For strategic defence reasons, it is critical that Australia retains an independent capability to build, sustain and maintain our next fleet of submarines; it is simply too important for flawed selection processes and partisan politics – certainly too important to be used as a bargaining chip in a leadership contest,” stated Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten.

“To achieve bipartisan consensus on the selection process for Australia’s Future Submarines, Labor proposes that a competitive tender process including a funded definition study is undertaken.”

Labor stated that it would insist that the tenderers agree to build the submarines in Australia, and said that Sweden would be included in its acquisition process.