Former prime minister Paul Keating has fired a fresh torpedo at the AUKUS deal, claiming Defence Minister Richard Marles has changed his argument to justify the submarine purchases.
Keating, who has been publicly critical of the $368 billion (US$245 billion) deal, said in an opinion article the government had shifted the need for the vessels from protecting the country from invasion, to instead needing to protect sea lanes for trade.
“In one week the government has gone from needing outrageously expensive nuclear submarines to weigh off a potential invasive threat from China to now—hold it—needing them, principally, to protect our sea lanes, an altogether different issue as to scale, purpose and urgency,” Keating wrote in the Australian Financial Review….