AUKUS alliance: ALP Left demands detail on subs deal

Labor’s Socialist Left faction urges Anthony Albanese not to instantly back nuclear submarines agreement.

Labor senator Kim Carr. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Labor senator Kim Carr has questioned whether the AUKUS deal will make Australia “more ­vulnerable to a future Trump” and has urged Anthony Albanese against instantly backing the deal.

Senator Carr, from the Socialist Left faction, was among the MPs who raised concerns about the nuclear submarine deal in Labor’s virtual caucus meeting on Thursday.

Victorian Left MP Ged Kearney warned backing the deal would bolster support for the Greens in her inner-Melbourne electorate of Cooper, while West Australian Left MP Sue Lines sought assurances the caucus had not made a decision on the ­nuclear submarine agreement.

Some Labor MPs were surprised there was no caucus vote on the deal, given it was conditionally backed by shadow cabinet on Thursday morning.

The caucus meeting was ­described as an “explanatory briefing” rather than seeking the agreement of Labor MPs for ­bipartisan support of the AUKUS pact.

The Opposition Leader told caucus he had been briefed on the AUKUS agreement and it was reasonable.

He told MPs he supported the agreement as long as it met the conditions he gave publicly: that there be no requirement of a domestic civil nuclear industry, that there be no acquisition of ­nuclear weapons, and that it was compatible with the non-proliferation treaty.

Senator Carr spoke at length about problems with the agreement, including that it could be seen by other nations in the ­region as the “Coalition of the Willing rebooted”.

He said Labor was entitled to have more detail before agreeing to sign a “blank cheque” from a “slippery and deceitful” government, according to sources in the meeting.

The long-time factional enemy of Mr Albanese questioned whether the deal would ­affect Australia’s strategic foreign policy options.

“Will that make us more vulnerable to a future Trump?” Senator Carr said.

There were also questions asked on the deal by Labor MPs Louise Pratt, Tim Watts, Meryl Swanson, Anne Urquhart, Warren Snowdon, Malarndirri McCarthy and Julian Hill.

Opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor conceded in the meeting there was still a lot of unknowns about the deal.

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke on Friday said Labor had “supported the announcement”.

“Anthony Albanese has put forward three conditions which are important, none of which breach what’s been announced but which are important in terms of making sure that you don’t have nuclear weapons, in making sure you’re not breaching the non-proliferation treaty, and making sure that it’s not being done through a domestic civil ­nuclear capacity,” Mr Burke told Sky News.

“Now, all those parameters are within what’s been announced. There will be other questions that will be asked, quite rightly, about how much money might have been wasted over the last eight years.

“There were already questions about the government’s handling of the submarine project and the submarine contracts before this announcement happened. Now, it’s only right and proper that we follow that through.”

Labor MP Josh Burns, among the most outspoken opponents of nuclear energy in caucus, said he supported the agreement.

“My opposition to nuclear ­energy is nothing to do with the technology, it is to do with the cost,” Mr Burns said.

“I’m not anti-nuclear. We use nuclear technology for medicine. But in terms of using it to generate energy it makes absolutely no sense.”

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Steve Murphy said “nuclear is a dangerous distraction”.