More on AUKUS

Labor supporters ridiculing the Liberal opposition for advocating nuclear power should remember that:

1. For decades, successive Labor governments have promoted uranium exports, including to countries that either refuse to join the NPT or ratify the test-ban treaty.
 
2. When, for political reasons, the then Labor opposition rushed to embrace the sweeping AUKUS nuclear submarine deal in 2021, it did so without conducting a strategic assessment.
 
3. Labor insists the projected nuclear subs will:
 
(a) be perfectly safe to enter Australian port cities;
 
(b) be well suited for deploying to dangerous waters during crises;
 
(c) safeguard Australian sovereignty, despite deepening dependence on Washington and being hostage to future shifts in US/UK policy and conditions.
 
(d) be good value for money, despite the $300bn-plus cost and despite Canberra’s shockingly bad record of managing large defence projects.
 
(e) present an easily manageable waste problem, without saying how they will do it;
 
(f) provide a fabulous boost to Australian science, education and economic activity; and
 
(g) not encourage nuclear proliferation (e.g. not encourage others to go down a road Canberra says is so great).
 
4. Four years ago, the ALP would have sneered at this questionable package of claims.
Today, it says there’s no real alternative to AUKUS, and that opponents are not serious.