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18 DECEMBER 2023

Last week the US Congress passed the National Defense Authorisation Act in a historic moment for our AUKUS partnership.

The importance of this development cannot be overstated.

It demonstrated the AUKUS agreement continues to be implemented at pace by all three partners.

It will enable unprecedented levels of scientific, technological and industrial collaboration and pave the way for Australia to build up its sovereign workforce capacity.

It means tens of thousands of highly skilled jobs for Australians.

And it brings us closer to realising a generational opportunity to protect Australians and their interests and to support stability and security in the Indo-Pacific.

The NDAA paves the way for Australia to acquire three Virginia Class nuclear-powered submarines, and will turbo-charge cooperation between our countries.

It includes a powerful national exemption that means most Australian acquisitions of, and collaboration on sensitive military technology will no longer need to go through the onerous export licence process.

Items not covered by the exemption will be managed through a much faster and more streamlined approval process.

In an unprecedented step, Australia will be included in the US Defense Production Act’s definition of domestic source.

This means Australian-based businesses will be eligible to receive loans, grants and purchasing contracts direct from the US Government to support priority sectors, such as critical minerals supply chains, guided weapons, and advanced capabilities