Malcolm Turnbull: AUKUS is ‘a huge wealth transfer from the Australian government to the US and the UK’

Speaking at Chatham House, the former Australian prime minister strongly criticized the joint Australia–US–UK submarine project.

Malcolm Turnbull, former Australian prime minister, visited Chatham House on 11 May to discuss Australia’s foreign policy, its US alliance, and the role of middle powers in the context of US–China rivalry. 

Asked about the AUKUS trilateral security partnership between Australia, the US and UK, which is meant to provide Australia with nuclear attack submarines, Mr Turnbull said it was a ‘huge wealth transfer from the Australian government to the US and the UK’.

‘It’s a submarine deal with no submarines…It was a terribly bad deal, a really stupid deal,’ he said, adding that US naval yards are not producing submarines at sufficient scale and speed to meet AUKUS needs.

Addressing the UK part of the deal, which would see joint development of a new nuclear submarine class, he said that ‘the UK shipbuilding industry, particularly the submarine industry, is in complete disarray…We shouldn’t have cancelled the deal with France’.

He said that it would be better for the UK to go into partnership with France to design a new nuclear submarine class, with the aim of developing common defence platforms for Europe. 

During the event Mr Turnbull also discussed the summit between Chinese President Xi and US President Trump, Australian relations with the Trump administration, and Australia’s role in Pacific security.