James Curran’s examination of many of the risks of the AUKUS submarine project (“‘Miracle needed’: the big dangers of our subs deal”) highlights extraordinary challenges. The Australian Defence department and industry struggle to deliver on major projects, even when we control most of the pieces. In AUKUS we won’t – most of the levers will be in the US and UK, where their own submarine programs are all running late. We just have to find the crews, even though crewing the current Collins is a challenge.

What concerns me is the prospect for significant financial cost escalation and implications for the rest of Defence and wider government. Projects never come in under budget, and in this case, we are sole sourced to big providers who are expert at finding reasons for a cost increase.