Shoebridge, Sen David

Senator SHOEBRIDGE: Sorry, the Deputy PM has been cheering the potential arrival of a US nuclear submarine. But what you forgot to tell the Australian public is that it may be the only nuclear submarine that the UK is able to deploy at the moment because the rest of their fleet is suffering such chronic crew shortages and maintenance delays that they've been in port for the great bulk of the last 12 months. As I said, one of them has been in dock for seven years and another has been in dock for three and a half years. Vice Adm. Mead : I think that's a hypothesis that you are making there, Senator. You are free to draw any conclusions that you wish. As I said, we look forward to the visit of a UK nuclear-powered submarine travelling across the world to get to Australia, where Australian workers and the Australian supply chain, like we did last year with USS Vermont and the year before with USS Hawaii , will provide maintenance to that submarine in preparation for SRF-West 2027.