Australian Public Inquiry Calls AUKUS the Worst, Riskiest and Costliest Defence Decision Ever Made, Urges Scrapping the Submarine Program
Canberra — An independent, community-funded public inquiry released its final report at Australia's National Press Club on November 4, calling the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact "the worst, riskiest and most costly defence decision ever made by an Australian government" and urging that it be terminated immediately.
The report, titled "Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception," was produced over five months by five commissioners including former Labor minister and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett and former Chief of the Defence Force Admiral Chris Barrie. The inquiry received more than 1,000 submissions and heard from more than 150 witnesses in eight cities. The Australian government did not take part, and the inquiry was dominated by critics of the deal.
The report says the A$368 billion program could cost up to about A$500 billion once an estimated additional A$180 billion for nuclear waste management is counted, and that there is next to no hope the submarines will arrive on time — the first secondhand U.S. Virginia-class boat is not due until 2032, with another every four years after that — under arrangements offering no refunds, no enforceable obligations on partner countries and no recourse if things go wrong. It warns that the Stirling naval precinct near Perth risks becoming a de facto U.S. base hosting as many as 2,000 American personnel under the Submarine Rotational Force–West, turning nearby Rockingham and Fremantle into potential targets, and that the pact could drag Australia into a military conflict with China.
The report makes 17 recommendations, including immediate termination of AUKUS Pillar I (the nuclear-powered submarine program), a royal commission into how the pact was conceived, an independent audit by the Australian National Audit Office, suspension of plans to host rotating U.S. nuclear submarines near Perth and of AUKUS work at Adelaide's Osborne precinct, an end to seconding Australian submariners aboard U.S. vessels, an alternative "Plan B" submarine strategy, an overhaul of Pillar II, and a recalibration of Australia's relationships with Washington and Beijing.
AUKUS was agreed in 2021 by the former Morrison government with the United States and Britain, and the current Labor government supports it; President Donald Trump endorsed the pact after a Pentagon review in 2025. The inquiry's backers urged the federal government to respond publicly to the report.
(Source: The Public Inquiry into AUKUS)
Source: The Public Inquiry into AUKUS
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国海军弗吉尼亚级攻击核潜艇「加利福尼亚」号（SSN 781）出航（资料图）。照片为美国海军作品、公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Virginia-class attack submarine USS California (SSN 781) underway (file photo). U.S. Navy photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
