2026-05-22
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report today on the Collins Class Submarines Life of Type Extension, shows structural negligence from the major parties and Defence leadership, and another multi billion dollar defence debacle attached to AUKUS. This comes just days after Defence Minister Marles announced that Labor was so confident in this project they were committing $11 billion to it.
The Collins class-submarines are a 1980s design that entered into the Australian Navy in the 1990s, with the six submarines scheduled for retirement in 2026-2036. Successive failures of Liberal and Labor Governments have created the need for an experimental ‘Life of Type Extension’ (LOTE) to keep these submarines operating more than a decade beyond their design life.
This ANAO audit makes clear that LOTE was initially designed to work alongside the French attack submarine contract entered into by the Turnbull Government. This plan went sideways when the Morrison government announced AUKUS with Labor’s backing. Despite this, the LOTE project continued on without change for years and no one in Defence, or the major parties, reassessed it. They kept on pumping money into a program based on a cancelled French submarine project that had been superseded by AUKUS.
The lack of key management artefacts, baseline controls, clear rationales, clear milestones, strict budgets has seen the design contract balloon from $125 million to $813 million since 2022 and has left defence with a failing, half baked plan for the Collins class submarines.
This is a pattern of behaviour that is common in Defence, cheered on by Labor, One Nation and the Liberals. Billions wasted, projects failing and everyone involved walking away with promotions and plaudits.
Senator Shoebridge, Greens spokesperson on Defence, said: “This is what happens when you have a Defence establishment that fails time and time again, and relies on the unquestioning loyalty of Labor, the Coalition and One Nation. It is an expensive cult that thrives off public money and the gravy train of AUKUS.”
“This whole project has been a farce, with Defence signing a half-baked design contract in February 2022 that they have had to amend 53 times since, with the cost spiralling from $125 million to $813 in that time. All to sustain a project that was completely upended by AUKUS.
“Once the Coalition and Labor decided to sink $375 billion on nuclear submarines, with no value for money assessment, no review, no analysis, it was always going to have damaging flow-on effects. It is a pattern of behaviour from Defence, they don't explain what they are doing and are hostile to anyone seeking basic answers about AUKUS or the LOTE.
“No wonder we had Defence Minister Marles out earlier this week trying to cushion the blow of this damning report by announcing the descope. The Minister and the senior defence chiefs knew this audit was coming and have been desperately trying to spin their way out of the mess.
“Defence is now stuck spending billions on experimental plans to keep the ageing Collins submarines in the water long enough for AUKUS to come good. It turns out that neither part of the plan is on track, and the multi billion dollar cost is being borne by the Australian public.
“As usual with Defence no one has been sacked, no one has been demoted and no one held accountable for this multi billion dollar disaster.
“What should make every Australian taxpayer shiver is this is the same organisation that Labor has decided to reward with an extra $53 billion over the next decade."