Paul Keating's blistering assault on AUKUS nuclear submarine deal | 7.30

this is the first time in 65 years and only the second time in history that the United States has shared its nuclear propulsion technology and we thank you for it a long range nuclear-powered capable submarine will be at the heart of Australia's future projection they look low but they've got all the big ones basically right in the 20th century but this one is where we break the winning streak prime minister and Anthony in his government may have briefly basked in the sense yesterday that its momentous commitment to buy U.S nuclear-powered submarines and later to jointly build British ones may have finally addressed Labor's long political vulnerability on National Security if nothing else the coalition's unconditional support of the policy seemed to suggest it would not be a matter of political contention but at the Press Club today former Prime Minister Paul keating's Savage criticism of his own party's policy decision was devastating what Anthony Albanese has done this week he screwed into place the last shekel in the long chain which the Americans have laid out to contain China we are now part of it of of a containment policy against China keating's critique was comprehensive he wanted to know for starters exactly what was the nature of the threat to Australia underline all this stuff about the need of nuke about is the idea that China has threatened us or will threaten us now this is a distortion and it's untrue the Chinese have never implied that they would threaten us or or said it explicitly but what threatened us means is an invasion of Australia you know the idea that we need American submarines to protect us you know three if there's we if we buy eight three are at c three are going to protect us from the might of China really I mean the rubbish of it he also said that even if this threat was real the policy unveiled yesterday didn't actually deal with that threat he says new nuclear-powered submarines represent a complete departure from the defense strategy embodied by the current collins-class submarines a 4 000 ton boat like the Collins worked perfectly around the Australian coast because it was designed to protect Australia it wasn't designed to sit off the Chinese Coast seeking Chinese submarines the China can also shoot our submarines because we're in the shallow water and we are detectable right so this is a strange way to be defending Australia to have your submarines sunk on the Chinese continental shelf heating argues the nuclear submarine strategy is about backing American dominance in the Pacific not the defense of Australia what the Americans are trying to do is deny the Chinese a second strike strike capability and we'd be the mugs up there helping them we don't need 8 000 ton submarines Collins was four we could have 50 Collins class boats and 15 at Sea and we'd have a much stronger defense than this rubbish that the government's doing perhaps his most devastating critique though was about why labor had decided to wholeheartedly support the Morrison government's commitment to walk Us and how it had gone about it he said a neocon security establishment had sold the Orca strategy to Scott Morrison but Anthony Albanese had chosen to rely on quote two seriously unwise ministers Penny Wong and Richard miles who had earlier decided to not allow labor to be wedged on foreign policy and defense matters we're briefed on the Wednesday afternoon myself Brendan Richard miles and anyone and the advice was clear and we took that clear advice and we made a very clear sober decision I'm proud of what we did in less than 24 hours with no notice labor party they call them in at four o'clock one afternoon and see Albanese Wong and mile miles and at 10 am the following morning they have taken the policy in its entirety board and the primers are running around recently so I was very proud to be able to take that policy in 24 hours labor welcomes the Australia UK U.S agreement well how would you take a policy which is going to cost this much money have these consequences for our relations are you with China with the region B in terms of our industrial base how would you do this in 24 hours you can only do if you have no perceptive no perceptive ability to understand the weight of the decisions you're being asked to make it's getting other people call it incompetence if there is foreign oversight or supervision or assistance without which that capability cannot be deployed then it is not fully Sovereign because if the other country said you know what we don't want to help you anymore with this then you're stuck Paul Keating was not the only former prime minister to question yesterday's announcement today Malcolm Turnbull famously did the deal with French president Emmanuel macron to buy submarines but he joined the criticisms today of the New Deal arguing our lack of nuclear capability alone would make Australia dependent on our August Partners now if we are able to set up our own nuclear supervision regime our own Regulatory Agencies and do all that from a standing start from having nothing that you know meets those requirements today and if we do that to the satisfaction of the Americans and the British then it may well be that those submarines will be under Sovereign control but boy there's a long way to go before we can say that the reactor is run by the Americans the control system is run by the Americans our sovereignty just being peeled away by all this there are billions of dollars going from Australia into the industrial shipbuilding base of both the United States and the United Kingdom uh there will be money spent in Australia as well of course substantial amounts of money but there is the you know the the big winners here financially are British shipbuilders and American submarine Builders I'd say in those branches of ours when they work out that that we have returned to Britain 230 years after we left after British dumped us all through these years that we're going to bail the British bie systems and British aerospace companies and submarine companies out despite the bipartisanship on August Paul Keating clearly believes his views reflect those of Labor's Rank and file I'd say majority of Labor people would share my view about this I think there'll be a big reaction to what the government's doing I mean there's no mandide inside the labor party no mandate what prime minister albany's a foreign minister pennywong and Richard miles are doing no mandate foreign

Channel: ABC News (Australia)

Views: 76,254

Keywords: Australia, abc, abc news, news, aukus, paul keating, foreign policy, politics, federal government, labor party

Id: P3m3U-CK8L4

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 16 2023