Prime Minister Scott Morrison will commit the funding over ten years while campaigning in Tasmania on Tuesday with a pitch to voters to expect local jobs from the increase in federal spending.
The funding comes after a row last November when the federal government scrapped plans for a 2.7 kilometre concrete runway in Antarctica to make it easier to send in supplies and staff,sparking claims Australia would lose ground to other countries.
Mr Morrison will promise local procurement for the new programs so Tasmania and other parts of Australia gain from the new spending.
“The money we are investing in drone fleets,helicopters and other vehicles will enable us to explore areas of East Antarctica’s inland that no country has ever been able to reach before,” he said in a statement.
“My government will continue to back our world-class scientists and expeditioners with the necessary funding and resources because their research on the frozen continent and in theSouthern Ocean is critically important to Australia’s future.
“Our ongoing investment in Antarctica will directly support jobs at home,with Australian businesses,contractors,medical suppliers and providores reaping the benefits of local procurement.”
Labor went to the last election with a promise to support research in Antarctica and an admission about the increasing influence of China in the geopolitics of the continent.