Acompelling discussion about the AUKUS agreement recently took place at a Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce Biznet Breakfast.

The breakfast was supported by UniSA Mount Gambier Campus and people tuned in to special guest speaker UniSA Defence and Space Director Matt Opie, who discussed how the regions can be involved with AUKUS.

AUKUS stands for the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where, under the pact, the US and the UK will assist Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.

Mr Opie contextualised the importance of the AUKUS agreement and discussed potential opportunities for regional businesses through the AUKUS agreement and in the defence industry.

He explored opportunities and benefits for South Australian businesses to be involved in the supply chain and would benefit from the building of submarines.

Mr Opie said the best opportunities for local businesses looking to enter the supply chain were through the large defence companies who will have head contracts through defence.

“At the moment we do not know who is going to be constructing the submarines, but it is likely to include companies like ASC and BAE Systems,” he said.

“BAE Systems is currently building the Hunter Class Frigate, so that is an immediate opportunity.

“The construction of the submarines will not occur for another decade at least, but the main opportunities for local companies are in the supply chains for the bigger firms.”

Mr Opie said people did not require university degrees to be involved in the defence industry, with roles such as administrators, human resources and trade-based qualifications also needed.

“There is a lot of work being done at the Osborne shipyard that needs many and varied skills and even courses like IT and software and cyber will be required,” he said.

“In terms of supply chains, there are a lot of skills here in the South East that come with your industries in agriculture, forestry and mining that are transferrable.

“For example, geospatial data analytics, AI, manufacturing, all those sorts of things are used in those industries, and they are also used in defence.

“I think there is an opportunity there for the South East as a region to position themselves to do something with the technical college.

“My advice would be to work closely with the State Government and the Department of Education, look at how you could incorporate an AUKUS theme or a defence theme along with your other industries to develop common areas like Artificial Intelligence, for example, and how that applies to all your sectors here.”

The Chamber president Candice Fennell said the points Mr Opie discussed were very eye-opening.

“To think of a long-term project such as this, which is going to be decades, it initially was quite difficult for people to make the connection of how that is going to benefit their business here in the Limestone Coast region,” she said.

“We heard from Matt about how that is possible, and it does not have to be initially started with AUKUS.

“We can tap into that supply chain of defence supplies that is needed to then go, ‘when AUKUS does start, my business is ready, and I am already part of the defence supply chain’.

“The other important thing we heard was around how does that link with our future generations when it comes to the technical college connection with what UniSA provides by way of courses and opportunities, that learning for our younger generations is important.

“We needed to learn more and gain more of an understanding of what AUKUS could mean to the businesses of the Limestone Coast and that was the core reason why The Chamber wanted to do that.”

Ms Fennell was very pleased with the breakfast attendance and the engagement of local businesses.

“We have our core direction around growth, representation and connection and this type of event ticks all of those boxes for the business community and particularly our members,” she said.

“We want to make sure we are growing our business community, that we represent them at local, state, and federal levels of government and that we connect people.”