AUKUS alliance: Don’t cannibalise ADF for submarines, says Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton says spending on other defence projects must not be ‘cannibalised’ in favour of AUKUS.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in Canberra on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Peter Dutton says Labor must be upfront with taxpayers about how it will pay for eight new nuclear-power submarines, as he warned that spending on other defence projects must not be “cannibalised” in favour of AUKUS.

The Opposition Leader said Anthony Albanese must outline whether he will cut spending in other areas or raise taxes in the upcoming budget, with Mr Dutton flagging his support for spending in aged care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme to be reviewed.

While the Coalition offered its bipartisan support for the deal, the Greens said the new submarines would make Australia less safe and warned that critical funding for health, education, housing and ­Indigenous justice would suffer “deep cuts”.

Australia will spend $268bn-$368bn over the next 30 years to acquire AUKUS-class nuclear submarines, including up to five Virginia-class submarines to help close a looming capability gap in the nation’s defences.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday ­defence spending would rise by at least 0.15 per cent of GDP on average over its 30-year lifetime, on top of the already forecast Defence budget of about 2.2 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade.

Mr Dutton said the government must be transparent about the cost attached to the acquisition of submarines, and confirmed the opposition was prepared to support cuts to the NDIS and aged care if required.

“Listening to some of the rhetoric this morning, I think there’s a magic pudding episode going on here that somehow the money is going to appear or it will be cost-neutral,” Mr Dutton said.

“This is not a cost-neutral decision and the government should be clear to the Australian public about that and appropriately, the money is being spent because the times demand it.”

Mr Dutton warned against cuts to defence programs, with about $3bn in savings to be recouped from the wider Defence budget to be detailed in the upcoming ­defence strategic review.

“It’s not credible for the government to say that there’s no net ­impact, even over the forward estimates,” Mr Dutton said. “We can’t allow Labor to cannibalise the ­Defence Force to pay for AUKUS. It’s not an either/or option.”

Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge said Labor was “mortgaging” Australia’s future to stoke regional tensions and that the party would not co-operate with the government to force ­budget savings on critical public services.

“This is a $368bn nuclear-powered raid on public education, health, housing and First Nations justice that will starve core services for decades to come,” Senator Shoebridge said.

“Until it is reversed, today’s ­announcement will force Labor to deliver austerity budgets to funnel billions of dollars offshore to fund the US and UK nuclear submarine industries.”

Greens spokesman for nuclear disarmament Jordon Steele-John said he was “deeply concerned” by the lack of appropriate contingency planning should a nuclear accident occur, after the navy ­revealed in estimates last year that, in the event of such an incident, the submarine would be towed out to sea.

In the case of Western Australia, which will host eight nuclear submarines by 2055, a compromised vessel would be towed out past Rottnest Island to “minimise, to the extent practicable the ­exposure of individuals”.

“As a Western Australian I do not want to see our beautiful coastline put at risk in this way – it is completely unacceptable,” Senator Steele-John said.

But Foreign Minister Penny Wong reiterated that the deal was essential to ensuring peace and ­security in the region.

“We’ve seen the Japanese submarine announcement, we’ve seen the French submarine announcement, we’ve seen a lot of ministers make a lot of announcements,” Senator Wong said.

“We are focused on delivering. And we’re focused on delivering not just the capability but on ­delivering the uplift, the uplift in our industry capacity here in South Australia.”