Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

STEELE-JOHN () (): The AUKUS political deal being debated today—dreamt up by Scott Morrison and by Boris Johnson, of all people, and sanctified by President Joe Biden—is, of course, a tremendous waste of public funds. It sees Australia go all in to the tune of $368 billion on the purchase of eight nuclear powered submarines that won't be delivered until I'm 60-odd. And, for this, the Australian people will get the privilege of becoming a nuclear waste dump for the refuse of these machines and will see their public money subsidise British and US defence manufacturers. It is a waste of public funds. It puts us at risk.

But, this afternoon, what I want to comment upon is this. It is one of the most catastrophic foreign policy decisions an Australian government has ever entered into, and it fundamentally undermines our ability to be considered as independent actors in our region. This deal forever shackles us to the United States of America. It removes the question in the minds of any of our regional neighbours as to whether, when the United States says, 'Jump,' we answer, 'How high, and would you like a backflip, sir?' I find it to be outrageous in the extreme and hypocritical in no end that both parties have spent this week criticising Paul Keating—a man with more right to comment on these things than most people in here—for his observations, yet you all have remained silent in relation to John Winston Howard, a man who should be before the Hague for his involvement in the war in Iraq.