Australia's nuclear ambitions have a workforce skills problem; we can help, says ANU's Brian Schmidt

Vice chancellor Brian Schmidt will urge the government to establish a national nuclear enterprise, underwriting domestic university nuclear programs - only ANU has one currently - needed to produce the graduates required to design, build and run critical future nuclear capabilities.

The Defence Minister and Navy chief told a Submarine Institute of Australia conference on Tuesday that China can strike devastating blows against Australia from afar, and only the stealth and unique capabilities of nuclear-powered submarines will change the risk equation for Australia's adversaries.

Australia must have "impactful projection" of power, Defence Minister Richard Marles said in rhetorical shift. That included rapidly acquiring the capability to build nuclear-powered submarines.

Professor Schmidt will say the problem cannot be left to Defence alone in an address to the conference on Wednesday, citing the skills and training overhaul needed to scale up Australia's capability within the decade.

The university head will call for the government to define its nuclear plans as an area of sovereign industrial capability priority and provide investment certainty. Professor Schmidt says there is no time to wait - a caution also issued by Mr Marles.

"Whatever submarine design ends up being chosen, we won't be able to build and operate it locally unless we address the fundamental issue of Australia's workforce capability gap," Professor Schmidt is expected to say.

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Defence workforce incentives to recruit and retain graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, known as STEM, will be competing against every other industry and sector, he will say. While only 9 per cent of Australian year 12 students are taking higher mathematics needed to succeed in STEM fields.

He will also urge the government to establish an AUKUS career pathways program to encourage high-achieving students into courses for critical skills and then Defence careers, bypassing existing graduate programs. Nuclear science "must be first cab off the rank for this program" that he would see jointly developed with Defence, while also supporting cyber and computing, engineering, space and quantum physics.

The ANU was established to solve problems like this and play a key and leading role, he will say. "My university runs the only comprehensive nuclear physics program in the country. But scaling up that program will require upfront investments in infrastructure, facilities and academic recruitment."

Navy chief Mark Hammond told the conference that an adversary need not invade Australia to cripple its wellbeing - it could do so from afar - but the possession of nuclear-powered submarines would put a question in the minds of those adversaries and change the risk calculation.

"If we do our jobs right the deterrence and lethality of this capability will be enough for decades to come," the Vice Admiral said.

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Mr Marles said the future submarines capability would "give the adversary pause", and claimed Australia needed "impactful projection" of military power beyond its shores, a shift in thinking from the assumption the Defence Force existed to defend the continent.

The Labor-initiated Defence Strategic Review, which submitted its interim report last week and is on track to be completed early in 2023, would provide the momentum for that pivot and be influential for "decades to come", he said.

Defence officials will appear at estimates on Wednesday.