AUKUS: Scott Morrison slams Labor division on submarines

Scott Morrison welcomes ‘overwhelming’ support in the US for nuclear-powered subs but slams the ALP for having ‘a bet each way’.

Scott Morrison is welcomed to the US Capitol in Washington by Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

Scott Morrison has welcomed “overwhelming bipartisan support” in the US for getting nuclear-powered submarines but accused the ALP of undermining national security by having “a bet each way” on the proposal.

After meeting Democrat and Republican leaders in congress, the Prime Minister said there was “great enthusiasm for the project” and he had “received overwhelming support when it came to Australia moving ahead to establish a new submarine fleet”.

“President Biden gets it, the congress gets it … and that is a great encouragement to Australia,” Mr Morrison said.

But he said Labor’s calls to be involved in a consultation process and its concerns about how the Australian, UK and US agreement for the nuclear submarines would work were puzzling.

“I think Australians would be puzzled as to why there can be bipartisan support for this initiative in the US and within days, within days, the Labor Party seems to be having an each-way bet. I don’t have each-way bets on national security,” he said at the Australian embassy in Washington.

“If the Labor Party wants to have an each-way bet on national security, the Australian people need to know that.”

On Thursday, the Labor Party called for a parliamentary inquiry into the nuclear-powered submarines, saying it was “important that many detailed concerns are properly evaluated”.

Opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor and the Labor chair of the Senate economics references committee, Anthony Chisholm, said the probe would investigate “how the capability will be delivered without a domestic nuclear industry capability” and “the practical ­implications for command and capacity to act autonomously within this partnership”.

“An inquiry such as this is necessary, particularly in the absence of a nonpartisan process of oversight being established,” they said.

Labor warned that up to $4bn had already been spent on the now scrapped $90bn submarine contract with the French and the government needed to be transparent about “how much money has been burnt in the process”.

“Labor has concerns about the time-frame gaps in this proposal and what they mean for those workers and businesses in our shipbuilding industry in South Australia and Western Australia,” Mr O’Connor and Senator Chisholm said.

“Labor has suggested, as a mark of good faith, that we establish a joint mechanism between the government and opposition senior members so that we have oversight of what will be a multi-decade project.”

But Mr Morrison argued that the conditions Anthony Albanese had set out for bipartisan support before the $90bn French diesel submarine was announced had been met.

“The leader of the Labor Party set out three conditions of their support, all of them are met. All of them are met. So it really is a question for the Labor Party. It’s important that this had bipartisan support,” Mr Morrison said.

The Opposition Leader had agreed to support the new nuclear submarine plan if there were no nuclear weapons, no breach of nuclear non-proliferation agreements and no nuclear energy plans for Australia.

“The conditions that he set out are overwhelmingly met and will be met,” Mr Morrison said.

Senior government officials said the opposition would be briefed but it would have no formal role in the process.

In a major speech on Thursday, opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong cast doubt over Labor support for the deal and raised questions about Australia’s control of the technology and whether the nation “can act alone” in defending itself.

Senator Wong accused Mr Morrison of authorising the multi-decade nuclear submarine program so close to an election and flagged that Labor would target “valid questions about Australia’s sovereign capability”.

The speech followed criticism of Senator Wong by former prime minister Paul Keating over “her muted complicity with the government’s foreign policy and posture”. She said the new tech­nology and capabilities required for the submarines would not belong to Australia and ramped up pressure on the Morrison government to “inform the Australian people on the strategic, environmental, commercial and political ramifications and consequences of this decision … including valid questions about Australia’s sovereign capability”.

“How will we control the use of technology and capability that is not ours? What implications are there for the design, assembly, ­operation and maintenance of nuclear-powered submarines?

“Anthony Albanese has proposed a bipartisan consultation mechanism on this proposal; this partnership and this procurement cannot be at the mercy of changing political winds, particularly in this pre-caretaker period.”

Mr Morrison said his government had reached out to French President Emmanuel Macron, who had recalled the French ambassador to Australia, but “the opportunity for that call is not yet”.

Mr Macron agreed to return the French ambassador to the US after US President Joe Biden spoke to him on the phone about the new AUKUS agreement on security technology acquisition, including the nuclear submarines.

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said there was “bipartisan agreement that the US is our key ally” and that the ALP “wants the Prime Minister to be successful on this trip because of course that’s in Australia’s interests”.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said Labor had “made clear we support this technology as being the best option for our future submarines”.

“We have given bipartisan support, as I think it’s important that we do on matters like this.”