By David Crowe and Rob Harris
Former prime minister Paul Keating has berated the Labor government for claiming the AUKUS alliance will follow a similar path to his defence policy from three decades ago, escalating his attacks by calling the defence pact an act of “sublimation” to America.
Keating accused Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles of misleading Australians over the plan to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, arguing the outcome would sacrifice Australian sovereignty.
Government sources said the US was frustrated that Australia has not forcefully rebutted Paul Keating over his AUKUS criticisms. Credit: Kate Geraghty, Alex Ellinghausen
His blistering comments about “flogging a dead seahorse” came after Marles met his United States and United Kingdom counterparts in London on Thursday and recommitted to the plan to buy several US submarines before building a new fleet of AUKUS submarines.
“The fact is, the Albanese government, through this program and the ambitious basing of American military forces on Australian soil is doing nothing other than abrogating Australia’s sovereign right to command its own continent and its military forces,” Keating said.
Marles launched a passionate defence of the strategy by vowing there was no turning back on the $368 billion nuclear submarines deal, speaking alongside UK Defence Secretary John Healey and US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin at Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich on Thursday.
“We have to have a top-of-the-line, first-rate, long-range submarine capability,” Marles said, drawing a parallel between the current plan and the Keating government’s decision to build the Collins-class submarine in the 1990s.
“So to be able to have the same capability in the future that in Mr Keating’s time he was planning for with the Collins-class submarines, we must walk down this path.”
UK Defence Secretary John Healey, (centre), US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, right, and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles, left, speak during a press conference at the AUKUS Defence Ministers Meeting at Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.Credit: Getty Images
Marles argued that Australia had to commit to nuclear-powered submarines to continue the approach taken with the Collins-class diesel-powered vessels in the past, while he acknowledged the big leap in technical capability with the future fleet.
“It is not lost on us the significance of the step that we are taking,” Marles said. “But this is utterly essential for Australia’s future and the strategic imperative of that remains unchanged, irrespective of what Mr Keating says.
“We are really comfortable and confident about the way in which that argument is being received. There will, of course, be other voices, which happens in a democracy, and that is important, but this is a program which enjoys bipartisan support in Australia, and it is happening.”
Keating took issue with that argument and said Labor members were against AUKUS.
“Richard Marles says ‘there has been demonstrable support for AUKUS within the Labor Party’. This may be true at some factionally, highly managed national conference – like the last one – but it is utterly untrue of the Labor Party’s membership at large – which he knows,” Keating said in a statement after the Greenwich meeting.
“The membership abhors AUKUS and everything that smacks of national sublimation. It does not expect these policies from a Labor government.”
In a personal attack on the defence ministers, Keating said Marles had relied on Austin “propping him up” to make a false claim that AUKUS would not compromise Australian sovereignty, a claim also made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“But this would only be true until the prime minister and Marles got their phone call from the [US] president, seeking to mobilise Australian military assets – wherein, both would click their heels in alacrity and agreement,” Keating said.
Several diplomatic sources, speaking on background to discuss sensitive security issues, have told this masthead the US has grown frustrated at the Albanese government’s refusal to publicly rebut Keating, Evans and former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr, another critic of the pact.
In his statement, Keating cited recent comments from former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans, a key member of the Hawke and Keating governments, that it “defies credibility” to expect the US to sell the Virginia-class submarines without an understanding that Australia would use them to help the US in the region, including in any conflict over Taiwan.
As well as making a broader argument against the defence strategy, Keating argued the Collins submarines were 3,400 tonnes each and designed for the defence of Australia, while the Virginia submarines were 10,000 tonnes and designed for attack against Chinese vessels.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey, centre, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, right, and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles, left, speak during a press conference at the AUKUS Defence Ministers Meeting at Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.Credit: AP
The meeting on Thursday in London represented the first time defence ministers from the three AUKUS nations had met outside the US since the pact was launched in September 2021.
The US will sell two second-hand nuclear-powered Virginia-class boats to Australia in the early 2030s, with a third arriving towards the end of that decade. The UK and Australia are working on their own joint submarine project, known as SSN-AUKUS, with the custom-built nuclear-powered fleet to enter service in the late 2030s in the UK and early 2040s in Australia.
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