Submarine jobs poised to go west

Several hundred blue collar jobs are poised to be shifted to Western Australia, as the Morrison government prepares to make a decision potentially as soon as next week on the long-term future of submarine maintenance.

But the government risks alienating the crucial Centre Alliance Senate bloc over the proposal to split ASC's Collins class submarine workforce and keep white collar jobs, like engineers, in Adelaide while sending all maintenance to Perth by 2024 or 2026.

Industry sources have told AFR Weekend the split is gaining momentum within the Morrison government.

Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price did not rule out the split.

"That type of arrangement would ensure that we don't have a winner and a loser," she told AFR Weekend.

"There is plenty of work going around with respect to shipbuilding and particularly full cycle docking. Should that be the ultimate decision then I see that as a win-win for both states."

Defence has been keen to move full cycle dockings – where a submarine is taken out of the water, cut up and refurbished over a two year period – from Adelaide to Perth for a number of reasons, including freeing up workers for the new submarine and frigate building programs as well as locating all maintenance at the Collins class' home port.

However, key Senator Rex Patrick has threatened the government stripping jobs from Adelaide would cost it his support for contentious legislation, while a study by ASC claimed the hard fought gains improving the Collins class' availability would be jeopardised by shifting work.

Both the SA Liberal government and WA Labor government have lobbied hard over the maintenance work.

The government had flagged making a decision late last year but pushed it back in light of the contested views.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was tight-lipped when asked about the delay this week but ASC has been told to expect an announcement soon, with senior ministers to consider the issue on Tuesday.

The WA government has promised to pay for much of the cost of infrastructure for shifting work, while shipbuilders Austal and BAE Systems have also offered public-private partnerships to become involved.

WA Defence Issues Minister Paul Papalia said his state's industrial base was double the size of SA and had a large pool of workers to draw from following the end of WA's resources industry construction boom.

"A lot of our skilled labour that is underemployed can be applied to this task with training," he said.

"We're not stealing anything from South Australia. They will have a great degree of difficulty in meeting the challenge of building frigates, building submarines and completing full cycle dockings concurrently and that is because they are a smaller state with a smaller base."

The reporter travelled to WA courtesy of Luerssen Australia.