From 13m ago
‘Mugged by reality’: former PM lashes Aukus submarine deal
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has lashed the Aukus pillar 1 submarine deal, arguing the US is producing half as many as needed and Australia has “abandoned our sovereignty in terms of submarines”.
Speaking to ABC RN about the issue, Turnbull said:
The US navy is trying to increase its submarine fleet actually to meet the rapid growth in the Chinese navy, in particular [with] submarines. To do that to meet its own requirements, it needs to double its current production of Virginia-class submarines. And so, of course, in order to transfer submarines to Australia in the 2030s, three and possibly five under the Aukus pillar 1 deal, they’ve got to increase their production even more.
Now, right at the moment, they’re not only producing about half as many submarines as they believe they need, but they also are not able to maintain the submarines they have …
What does that mean for Australia? It means because the Morrison government, adopted by Albanese, has basically abandoned our sovereignty terms of submarines, we are completely dependent on what happens in the United States as to whether we get them now. The reality is the Americans are not going to make their submarine deficit worse than it is already by giving or selling submarines to Australia and the Aukus legislation actually sets that out quite specifically.
So you know, this is really a case of us being mugged by reality. I mean, there’s a lot of Aukus cheerleaders, and anyone that has any criticism of Aukus is almost described as being unpatriotic. We’ve got to be realistic here.
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Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has lashed the Aukus pillar 1 submarine deal, arguing the US is producing half as many as needed and Australia has “abandoned our sovereignty in terms of submarines”.
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Speaking to ABC RN about the issue, Turnbull said:
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The US navy is trying to increase its submarine fleet actually to meet the rapid growth in the Chinese navy, in particular [with] submarines. To do that to meet its own requirements, it needs to double its current production of Virginia-class submarines. And so, of course, in order to transfer submarines to Australia in the 2030s, three and possibly five under the Aukus pillar 1 deal, they’ve got to increase their production even more.
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Now, right at the moment, they’re not only producing about half as many submarines as they believe they need, but they also are not able to maintain the submarines they have …
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What does that mean for Australia? It means because the Morrison government, adopted by Albanese, has basically abandoned our sovereignty terms of submarines, we are completely dependent on what happens in the United States as to whether we get them now. The reality is the Americans are not going to make their submarine deficit worse than it is already by giving or selling submarines to Australia and the Aukus legislation actually sets that out quite specifically.
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So you know, this is really a case of us being mugged by reality. I mean, there’s a lot of Aukus cheerleaders, and anyone that has any criticism of Aukus is almost described as being unpatriotic. We’ve got to be realistic here.
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As we just flagged: China has recommended dropping tariffs on Australian wine exports worth $1bn in an interim decision, AAP reports.
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Beijing is reviewing the sanctions through a five-month process after the Albanese government agreed to suspend Australia’s dispute lodged with the World Trade Organization until 31 March. The Chinese government yesterday released its interim recommendation that the duties on wine are no longer necessary.
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Beijing will announce its final decision later this month, but the move has sparked hope the tariffs will be fully removed.
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The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the government had stabilised the relationship with China without compromising the nation’s values:
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We have delivered on that commitment through calm and consistent dialogue. We continue to press for all remaining trade impediments to be removed.
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affairs minister Penny Wong in Sydney yesterday.","caption":"Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong in Sydney on Tuesday.","credit":"Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP"}},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said the interim recommendation was a welcome development, and “vindicates the government’s preferred approach of resolving trade issues through dialogue rather than disputation”.
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Good morning, and happy Wednesday – welcome back to Australia news live blog! Emily Wind here, I’ll bring you our rolling coverage today.
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Making news overnight, China has recommended dropping tariffs on Australian wine exports worth $1bn in an interim decision.
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As AAP reports, Beijing is reviewing the sanctions through a five-month process after the Albanese government agreed to suspend Australia’s dispute lodged with the World Trade Organization until 31 March.
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The Chinese government yesterday released its interim recommendation that the duties on wine are no longer necessary. Beijing will announce its final decision later this month, but the move has sparked hope the tariffs will be fully removed.
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We’ll have more on this shortly, but in the meantime, here is this great piece by Eliza Spencer from our rural network on the issue:
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The search is continuing for seven people – including four children – missing amid the heavy rain in Western Australia. Yesterday, police said they held “serious welfare concerns” for the people missing hundreds of kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie, as flooding has cut off road and rail links into the state.
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We will bring you the latest on this as we hear further updates today.
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See something that needs attention on the blog? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
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Let’s get started.
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Key events
Filters BETA
US navy to halve submarine procurement in 2025: media reports
The ABC is reporting that the United States will halve next year’s planned procurement of Virginia-class boats, as the defence minister, Richard Marles, says Aukus partners are working “at pace” to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
It says defence budget papers released yesterday show the US navy would order just one of the fast-attack submarines in 2025, rather than two, pushing a projected saving of $US4bn into future years.
Democratic congressman Joe Courtney reportedly warned the decision would have a “profound impact” on both countries’ navies:
If such a cut is actually enacted, it will remove one more attack submarine from a fleet that is already 17 submarines below the Navy’s long-stated requirement of 66.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is due to speak about this shortly on ABC RN, and we’ll bring you this here on the blog.
Continued from our last post:
The Australian Grape and Wine chief executive, Lee McLean, said the decision was a “positive step” towards resuming trade with what was formerly the largest export market:
We remain cautiously optimistic about the forthcoming decision and will await Mofcom’s (China’s commerce ministry) final determination.
We appreciate the collaborative efforts from both the Australian and Chinese governments, and industry partners, in working towards a resolution.
China lifted tariffs on Australian barley in August last year following a similar process, after Labor paused a WTO dispute in exchange for a review.
Beijing imposed $20bn in sanctions on Australian products during heightened tensions in 2020.
Sanctions worth $2bn remain on wine, rock lobster and some abattoirs.
China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, on Monday said the review was “moving on the right track, in the right direction”.
Senator Don Farrell recently met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, on the sidelines of the WTO’s ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi last month.
– from AAP
China moves to dump tariffs on $1b wine exports
As we just flagged: China has recommended dropping tariffs on Australian wine exports worth $1bn in an interim decision, AAP reports.
Beijing is reviewing the sanctions through a five-month process after the Albanese government agreed to suspend Australia’s dispute lodged with the World Trade Organization until 31 March. The Chinese government yesterday released its interim recommendation that the duties on wine are no longer necessary.
Beijing will announce its final decision later this month, but the move has sparked hope the tariffs will be fully removed.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the government had stabilised the relationship with China without compromising the nation’s values:
We have delivered on that commitment through calm and consistent dialogue. We continue to press for all remaining trade impediments to be removed.
The trade minister, Don Farrell, said the interim recommendation was a welcome development, and “vindicates the government’s preferred approach of resolving trade issues through dialogue rather than disputation”.
Welcome
Emily Wind
Good morning, and happy Wednesday – welcome back to Australia news live blog! Emily Wind here, I’ll bring you our rolling coverage today.
Making news overnight, China has recommended dropping tariffs on Australian wine exports worth $1bn in an interim decision.
As AAP reports, Beijing is reviewing the sanctions through a five-month process after the Albanese government agreed to suspend Australia’s dispute lodged with the World Trade Organization until 31 March.
The Chinese government yesterday released its interim recommendation that the duties on wine are no longer necessary. Beijing will announce its final decision later this month, but the move has sparked hope the tariffs will be fully removed.
We’ll have more on this shortly, but in the meantime, here is this great piece by Eliza Spencer from our rural network on the issue:
The search is continuing for seven people – including four children – missing amid the heavy rain in Western Australia. Yesterday, police said they held “serious welfare concerns” for the people missing hundreds of kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie, as flooding has cut off road and rail links into the state.
We will bring you the latest on this as we hear further updates today.
See something that needs attention on the blog? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.
