Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning there were reports from Trudy McIntosh of Sky News, as reposted by Andrew Clavell, that three Labor MPs raised concerns about the AUKUS agreement, including the member for Corangamite and the member for Higgins, in Labor's caucus this morning. Yesterday in the parliament, the member for Fremantle said:

While I support the work of the government, I'm not completely convinced that nuclear propelled submarines are the only or best answer to our strategic needs.

This is a deeply concerning development.

This morning, as I understand from reports, concerns were raised in Labor's caucus about the cost of the nuclear submarine program and Australia's sovereignty. The question needs to be raised as to whether these concerns are well intentioned. Given the member for Corangamite is a member of Labor's hard left, I am not convinced. The member for Corangamite is part of a government that has broken so many promises—lower interest rates, cheaper mortgages, lower power prices and no changes to super, all broken. Now there is the broken promise about aged care, after the government conceded that it could not have a nurse on site at all times by July in every aged-care home, as it promised.

Of course, the member for Corangamite has been a hardline campaigner against new investment in coal and gas and could not care less that plans to build a gas import terminal by Viva Energy's Geelong Refinery—capable of importing half of Victoria's annual gas supply, including from WA—have been derailed by the Albanese government's chaotic energy-cap laws and the Victorian government's refusal to approve this terminal. Now we see the member for Corangamite and some of her colleagues doing their best to cause division over AUKUS. AUKUS is too important to fail.