Malcolm Turnbull says Donald Trump will like ‘terrible’ AUKUS submarine deal

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says Donald Trump will back the AUKUS defence pact because it’s actually “so unfair to Australia”.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has slammed the AUKUS defence pact with the US to deliver nuclear submarines claiming Donald Trump would back the deal because it’s “dumb”, “a fiasco” and “so bad” for Australia.

Mr Turnbull, the architect of Australia’s original submarine deal with the French that was torpedoed by Scott Morrison in favour of the new deal with the US and Britain, has warned it could end up leaving Australia empty-handed.

“AUKUS is a terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia,’’ he told reporters in Canberra.

“And the reason it is unfair is we are spending $3 billion US dollars to support the US submarine industrial base, but we have no guarantee we will ever get any submarines.

“So the most likely outcome of AUKUS is that we will end up with no submarines of our own.

“There will be Australian soldiers serving on US submarines and we will provide them with a base in Western Australia.

“So we will have lost both sovereignty and security and a lot of money as well.

“So people say, will Donald Trump like it? Well, of course he’d like it. It’s such a bad deal for us. His only thing at the back of his mind, he’ll be thinking: ‘who are these dumb guys that agreed to this deal?’”

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The AUKUS deal involves a trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK, and the US, with a focus on Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, including both US-built Virginia-class submarines.

Mr Turnbull has previously suggested that Australia has been “mugged by reality” over the AUKUS submarine deal after the US announced it will halve the number of submarines it will build next year, raising fresh fears about the Australian end of the deal.

The Pentagon budget draft request includes construction of just one Virginia-class nuclear submarine for 2025.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: David Swift

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Australia at the “mercy” of the United States

But Mr Turnbull, an architect of the French submarine deal which was unceremoniously dumped by the Morrison government in favour of the AUKUS deal, said Australia was now at the mercy of the United States for a key part of its defence strategy.

Earlier, Mr Turnbull told ABC Radio Sydney that the whole affair was “a fiasco.”

“The fundamental problem is that we are very, very likely, I would say, almost certain, never to get any Virginia class submarines,’’ he said.

“The Virginia class submarines are very good submarines, for sure. But the nature of the deal is that the Americans have no obligation to transfer them to us unless they conclude that their navy doesn’t need them and their Navy does need them and will need them.

“We’re sending billions of dollars to the Americans to support their submarine industrial base. And the high likelihood is that, you know, by the early 2030s we will, in effect, have no submarines at all. And that’s a catastrophe.”

US President Donald Trump. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP

Peter Dutton has “pulled the wrong rein”

Mr Turnbull also criticised Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s reluctance to support Australia joining a future peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

“I think Dutton has pulled the wrong rein here actually. He should have thought about it more carefully.

“Look, as Albanese has said, the peacekeepers only go in if there is peace. And what that means is that both sides to the conflict, in this case, Ukraine and Russia, agree for the peacekeepers to go in, and the peacekeepers are not there to fight anyone.

“They’re basically there to monitor that the terms of the ceasefire are being complied with. So, you know, yes, of course, it’s dangerous, but, I mean, but there’s this, not as though they’re being sent in to fight with the Russians, right?

“So they would only go in with Russian consent. Russian consent, at the moment, would not be given.

“But the mistake I think that Dutton has made is that Australia should be lining up as being a supporter and a friend and with solidarity with the countries that are supporting Ukraine.

“Now, you know that Albanese has done that. And that enables him to differentiate from Trump. Without saying anything critical of Trump, and it, it doesn’t decide. It plays into that idea that Dutton is too close to Trump.”