Coalition politicians have been eager to take credit for the AUKUS submarine deal unveiled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was silent for several hours after Albanese announced the “historic” acquisition of nuclear-powered subs at a naval base in California alongside US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. But when he finally reacted in a statement just before lunch, the first sentence noted the submarine deal was “the next step in the AUKUS partnership established by the Coalition government in 2021”.
“The concept of AUKUS was first conceived by prime minister Morrison in 2019 with the development process commenced in 2020,” he said, in a statement co-signed by his foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham and defence spokesman Andrew Hastie.
“Today’s announcement is an endorsement of the Coalition’s decision to pursue the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. It affirms the Coalition’s defence and national security strategy by enshrining the AUKUS partnership as the centrepiece of our nation’s defence.”
Scott Morrison himself made a rare appearance on the ABC’s 7.30 program.
“This has been described as your secret brainchild. Will history record Scott Morrison as the father of AUKUS?” host Sarah Ferguson asked.
“It may well, but that’s really not the point,” Morrison replied. “Today is an important day and a very exciting day for Australia and the whole region. I’m very proud of our country and the steps we’re taking, and I’m very pleased the new government has followed through on what was agreed between Boris Johnson, myself and Joe Biden.
“That’s what they were tasked to do, and that’s what they’ve done.”
Morrison’s announcement in 2021 that he had planned a new defence partnership with the US and the UK came as a surprise to the public. The deal had been hashed out in secret with even senior Australian diplomats and cabinet ministers kept in the dark. Morrison called it “the best-kept secret in Australian history since World War II” in an interview with The Australian at the weekend.
Shortly after Morrison announced the deal, a poll found 62% of respondents believed Australia was correct to pursue it, according to Guardian Australia.
However, 55% believed the agreement would inflame relations with China.
A December 2022 Lowy Institute poll of views on Australia’s alliance with the US in general found 77% agreed with the statement that the pact “makes it more likely Australia will be drawn into a war in Asia that would not be in Australia’s interest”.
The Greens’ defence spokesman and vocal critic of the deal Senator David Shoebridge said it made sense for the Coalition to seek credit.
“It’s no wonder that the likes of Dutton and Morrison are coming out and seeking to claim it because, in truth, it’s their policy,” he told Crikey. “This is the Labor Party truly surrendering any initiative in this space to the hard right of the Coalition.”
Shoebridge believes the majority of the public would be against a deal that would “come at the cost of cuts to Medicare, the NDIS and aged care” and would have the possibility of escalating regional tensions.
“This is popular within the circle of defence hawks and chest-beating politicians in Canberra, and it’s popular with global defence contractors,” he said. “But the majority of the Australian public wants the government to deescalate and to avoid war.”
‘…“the best-kept secret in Australian history since World War II”…’ Perhaps rivalled only by Morrison’s long list of secret ministries.
Give him credit folks, he has a natural gift for effectively hiding stuff. Robodebt illegality perchance…?
Mr Morrison is the dodgiest conman to ever grace the halls of power in Australia. This appearance on ABC continues to verify he remains and never will cease in the activity of conning people.
He was oozing all over the 7.30 desk, like a cane toad.
In fact, both he and Dutton have chosen glasses that amplify their oozing amphibian looks.
As long as Morrison and Dutton take the blame for our capabilities gap (The Collins class have been unable to get crew)………..
B–s–ds!
Morrison certainly didn’t want it discussed by people who might have expertise or a capacity for critical thinking. Rather, perhaps it just went through the usual PR interrogation (hey, that will be a beaut announcement) or perhaps some prayer meetings?
That the majority of Australians remain their insecure, naive yet belligerent and easily led selves is not surprising. Australian and American governments are counting on that willingness to acquiesce to the sacrifices in lives and money these foreign policy “strategies” enthusiastically sign us up to.
Scotty and Dutton can indeed claim credit for the AUKUS subs. And if it all goes pear shaped, will they take responsibility as well?
With such an enormous cost I would say it has already gone pear shaped. Dutton and Morrison are free to own it in my opinion.
With such an opaque system, can anyone reassure the people of Australia that we are not already paying a Smirko “special friend” to oversee the entire process, as we did for the French Subs?
Is this why he is acting so triumphantly???
Responsibility is a word no Liberal minister can either understand or spell.
Nah, mate! I don’t hold any responsibilities, at all!
Not a chance. They’ll be saying they never liked the idea.
so Scomo, Dutton and Labor will also take credit for necessitating the need for nuclear waste dump in Australia to handle the toxic waste generated by the subs?
we can’t even agree on how to store the comparatively low-risk, radioactive waste generated for medical uses – how the hell are we gonna find a place to store spent fuel rods and all the tainted materials that come with it?
For accuracy sake, in the US boats the reactors & highly enriched, weapons grade fuel are sealed units, in the delightful modern phrase so familiar to Iphone victims “not user serviceable” – the plan being that the sexy bits remain the sole property of Uncle Sam.
Nonetheless, some flak was on RN this morning decrying the use of the word “dumps” to describe the lucky locales where the nuke waste from the British vessels (though not enriched to weapons grade still dangerous) will be stored.
Ask your uniparty candidates if your electorate will be the lucky recipient and listen to the sounds of silence.
Apparently he was fine with the stuff
Paul Keating spoke on behalf of intelligent thinking Australians today and labelled the aukus submarine deal as the biggest mistake ever made by Australian Labor. He spoke of this deal undermining our sovereignty and undermining our defence capability and our relationship with our largest trading partner. All in the name of blind allegiance to US hegemony and foreign weapons manufacturers. He then smacked down a series of of pathetic questions by second rate dumbed down would be journalists highlighting one of Australias biggest problems, the lack of an independent free thinking press displaying intellect and mental acuity. I was never a big fan of Keating but he is on the money here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmgxAoa1n-8
I listened to him but found it so difficult to focus on the message with all the vitriol and self-promotion to wade through. What I could understand was interesting though I’m no judge of accuracy.
When he was talking about the choice of subs, was he saying that we could have bought more subs that use 5% enriched uranium and that are more suited to our part of the world/oceans from France because it recently offered us a deal we ignored?
It sounded like he said we could afford more shallow-water specialist Collins-styled subs for the same amount as the new deal, which would closer align with our historic policy of directly defending our territorial waters and coastline. He used a few numbers 40,45, 50.
In another part he said the French had come back to us recently with another submarine offer than used very low grade nuclear material (5%).
Yep, I understood him to be saying that too. But, what was he suggesting as the alternative to the decision made. Or did he not actually say even though he agreed that we need to act.
He sure was and the childish press gallery tried hard to labour the lie of China being about to attack us. I agree with Keating about them, we have the worst media outside North Korea.
He certainly did smack them down, so hard and so thoroughly what he had to say was completely lost on my elderly Labor voting mother. She was disgusted and appalled at his nastiness and rudeness, as she saw it. Her reaction made me wince, because she wouldn’t have been alone.
She still felt the same when I explained this wasn’t Keating’s first ride at this particular rodeo, he’s been speaking out against where we’re being dragged for quite awhile now and quite possibly he’s simply frustrated, exasperated and fed up. It didn’t matter, she still found his behaviour completely unacceptable.
Sometimes you really do need to win friends to influence people and I doubt PJK won any new ones today, and that’s really bad news for everyone who needs his message on this to cut through.
Kathy, I SO agree with your last paragraph and I’m feeling devastated that his powerful message will not be heard by enough people due to either condemnation or manipulation. Having said that, I find his directness and explanations are like a breath of fresh air instead of the mindless repetition of weasel words we’re usually subjected to.
Pity about Bushfire response, Hawaii and Flood response, cherry picking no less.