Former prime minister Paul Keating, a prominent AUKUS critic, says the United States’ decision to review the submarine deal should give Australia an opportunity to forge a new path on national security.
Keating also accused the Labor government of avoiding its own review of AUKUS “for fear of being seen as dodgy on the alliance”.
Former prime minister Paul Keating with Albanese in 2023.Credit: Dan Peled
“The review makes clear that America keeps its national interests uppermost,” he said in a statement.
“But the concomitant question is: why has Australia failed to do the same?
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“AUKUS will be shown for [what] it always has been: a deal hurriedly scribbled on the back of an envelope by Scott Morrison, along with the vacuous British blowhard Boris Johnson and the confused president, Joe Biden.
“The usual American apologists are already out in the press today insisting that the prime minister leaves his meeting with Trump on the weekend with a guarantee that AUKUS survives. It is an impossible ask.
“In any case, the calling of the Pentagon review should be the catalyst for the government to get on with the job of forging a relevant, distinctly Australian path for the country’s national security, rather than being dragged along on the coat tails of a fading Atlantic empire.”
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