Truth submerged? AUKUS will cost us $368 billion, so this is no time for secrecy |
Truth submerged? AUKUS will cost us $368 billion, so this is no time for secrecy
June 13, 2026 — 9:30am
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Even supporters of the broad thrust of the AUKUS trilateral security agreement were unsettled by the secrecy surrounding its development and the short-term political manoeuvring embedded in its genesis.
Demanding a response within 24 hours, the Morrison government clearly hoped to wedge Labor in the lead-up to the 2022 election, intending to portray any reluctance to endorse the proposal as evidence that the ALP could not be trusted with Australia’s national security.
Labor’s swift and poorly considered decision to endorse the agreement meant there was no serious debate ahead of the election. Both major parties committed us to AUKUS before any independent, informed public scrutiny and debate were possible, and both are now apparently unwilling to entertain any doubts about the deal, the anticipated total cost of which is $368 billion (already blown out in the most recent budget).
From Labor, too, there has been only studied silence on why it abandoned its long-held opposition to the deployment of nuclear power.
Once elected, the Labor government did not pause and take stock of the risks and benefits of the agreement or to engage the wider public and policy experts in the field. The dynamics of the decision-making, including the major players and their interests, are still largely hidden. Secrecy such as this always risks compromising the quality of policymaking and problem analysis: too few voices are heard, alternative viewpoints are excluded, basic assumptions underpinning the policy are unexamined while the risks are minimised and the........