As the fifth anniversary of the AUKUS commitment by the Morrison Government approaches, investigative media reports must not overlook the murky background, confusing present and unknown strategic projections of being so entangled with the US Global Alliance. Australia’s social and essential service spending options are totally compromised by the direct financial burdens of AUKUS and its effects on security protocols for future investment in the domestic economy with China as Australia’s key trading partner.
In an article for The AIMN last year I expressed concerns about the new imperial role that had been assigned to Australia within the US Global Alliance by the AUKUS deal announced by the Morrison Government in 2021.
Foreign affairs journalist Ben Packham of The Australian continues to chip away with more revelations of these secret AUKUS protocols. A vastly different and more open strategic future could have prevailed through a continuation of the French submarine contracts. A fleet of twelve conventional submarines would now be operational at a fraction of the cost of AUKUS to offer Australians a higher level of national sovereignty in operational commitments with a focus on regional operations over extended manoeuvres in troubled waters to distant parts of Asia and Micronesia.
The long-term costs of AUKUS extends into our domestic economy. More controls on Chinese investment are being maintained in the new AI era while the Trump administration cultivates new commercial ties with China as covered in dozens of YouTube videos. Here is but one example:
As the AUKUS delivery mechanisms move on, the AUKUS Inquiry under the direction of its Commissioners has new relevance:
The online AUKUS Inquiry site has been developed to facilitate submissions.
In my own submission to the AUKUS Inquiry, I emphasized that the outrageous spending on AUKUS added to regional security problems in the Indo Pacific Basin as a commitment to Forward Defiance priorities on behalf of the US Global Alliance including sabre-rattling over the status of Taiwan.
Ironically, Australia is more committed to closer strategic and economic ties with the prevailing US administration than the absolute loyalty offered by the post -1945 governments of other Middle Powers like Italy. Some remnants of these Cold War commitments remain.
Ben Packham’s recent news article in The Australian (7 August 2026) mentioned the NSA Navy Base in Naples (From the US Navy):
Naples 18 June 2026: U.S. Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy is a host to more than 50 separate commands and approximately 8,500 personnel. NSA Naples is located approximately 60 miles (96 kilometers) south from the city of Gaeta and 145 miles (235 kilometers) from Rome.
The U.S. Naval Support Activity (NSA) Naples Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) program hosted a garden party onboard Carney Park, June 11 to showcase extensive park renovations, cabin upgrades, and quality-of-life improvements.
This US social outreach to Italians is commonplace at other military bases in Italy with patriotic themes and displays of conventional weaponry. The Gioia del Colle Base near Bari once hosted Jupiter Nuclear Armed Missiles which were withdrawn by agreement with the Soviet Union in negotiations to end the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
At the Joint US-Italian Base near Livorno and Pisa, military and civilian leaders met to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 251st anniversary celebration at Camp Darby, Italy, on 10 June 2026. Such joint operations extend beyond social events and nostalgic ceremonies.
Italy continues to welcome the presence of US bases and submarine visits to locations shown on the strategic map. However, more controls are being imposed by Italian governments over the use of these bases for offensive operations (Map Image: Limes: Revista Italiana di Geopolitica).
The strength of the industrial Labor Movement across Australia during the Cold War era kept US bases away from Australia as a commitment from both sides of politics until the 1960s. However, agreement was reached by the LNP on the establishment of the NW Cape Communication Station in 1963 and Pine Gap Joint defiance Facility followed in 1966 as ties with the US Global Alliance intensified during the Vietnam war era.
In opposition and government after 1975, the Labor Party moved in more pragmatic policy directions in relation Australia’s national sovereignty within the US Global Alliance.
The ANZUS Agreement which was given bipartisan support in 1951-52. The text of this agreement is readily available online. Commitments to the use of the Security Council to avoid armed conflicts were a key priority of the ANZUS text. Joint military operations as currently favoured by the Trump administrations were always a last resort. Threats of tariffs, purchases of territory from prospective rivals and military occupations had no place in the agendas of representative governments in traditional ANZUS protocols.
Such strategic alliances with budgets in the trillions annually do not give the US President a right to harass the leaders of Middle Power States within the US Global Alliances (Riccardo Alcaro of The Guardian 1 July 2026):
If Giorgia Meloni thought that she could put her April spat with Donald Trump over the pope’s criticism of the US war on Iran behind her, she had not banked on the US president’s capacity to bear a grudge.
Trump reignited tensions by telling an Italian TV journalist that the Italian PM had “begged” him for a picture at the recent G7 meeting in France. The Spanish newspaper El País suggested that Trump’s feathers had been ruffled by a video at the same meeting, showing Meloni appearing to scold him. In any case he doubled down on his tale in a Truth Social post, adding that Meloni wanted the photo to boost her flagging approval ratings, which he blamed on her failure to support the US in the Iran war.
Trump’s line of attack is hardly surprising, but Meloni’s forceful response is. In a social media video, she said Trump’s claim about the picture was “made up”. She expressed puzzlement at the US president apparently treating his allies worse than his adversaries. Fusing personal and national pride in a single retort, she concluded: “I do not beg, nor does Italy.”
The US-Italian Relationship Prior to the Photo Opportunity Squabble (Image from the White House Media)
Rewarding the Trump administration with quisling state loyalty from Australia compromises our own national sovereignty in dangerous times when the time-bomb over the status of Taiwan could erupt at any time while future AUKUS submarines are on patrol.
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building on the critical issues raised in each article.
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Henry Kissinger is famous for several sharp, cynical quotes. His most famous line on international relations is: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
This topic will not disappear for the next couple of decades and may get Australia into big trouble in our region as the submarines trawl through troubled water and initially under crews selected by the US and Britain.
This whopper con, stunt, lie, was to extract money from the gullible to recompense holders of obsolescence in every way. It stank, stinks, a pox.
It is simply unacceptable that this and previous Australian governments refuse to discuss anything concerning AUKUS with the electorate. The conclusion that I come to is that there is no honest, rational, conclusive explanation that can justify continuing with this ridiculous project and the current government is unable to justify it’s slavish compliance with all things American. If our governments were really concerned with providing a safe, prosperous and peaceful environment for those who voted to place them into office then AUKUS, Australia’s association with the ANZUS Treaty and the allowance for US military force placement on Australian sovereign territory would all be disallowed. Currently Australia is heading for the same social disaster that is being created by USA’s hegemonic plans for global domination. And make no mistake we will be dominated by American “interests” that do not align with Australia’s future interests.
Back to the imperial days of East of Suez and south of the former US atmospheric nuclear tests on exotic reefs in the Marshall Islands
Let’s make opponents of AUKUS our national heroes by supporting Paul keating and Malcolm Turnbull and the AUKUS Inquiry
Thanks for the article Denis about the AUKUS deal and inquiry. It will be interesting to hear the outcome of the inquiry.
For those interested in some of the technical details that discredit the AUKUS project have a look at the following links: (btw P&I is worthy of your subscription)
https://pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/08/aukus-infrastructure-part-7-sorting-the-submarine-source-and-sustainment-stalemate/?utm_source=pi_news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-2026-08-18
Commitment to AUKUS was not a good thing for Australia.
A protest in time can save a future war over Taiwan which Japanese occupation separated from China as early as 1895.
The global commander in chief has just threatened to bomb Oman for interferring with his strategies against Iran. For Australia, it is a financial penalty of $385 billion in lost oppoprtunities and risks of involvement in war over Taiwan’s future.
AUKUS may have been Scummo’s baby but it was Albappeasey who delivered it.
Great comment Max Gross. There is no excuse for Australia’s continued links to AUKUS. What hold does the Trump administration have on the Albanese Government? Funding for NDIS is being recycled to the corporate military industrial complexes of the US and Britain for a venture that promotes new tensions in our region and ties with pro-Taiwan countries like the Marshall Island and Palau and Japan’s far-right government
The Peter Garrett headed non-government enquiry into AUKUS is throwing up anomalies in the agreement with the US and UK, the most alarming being that Australia bears all the costs with no recourse or refunds and that there is no contractual or legal obligation for the US to actually deliver any submarines.
Under an amendment finalized in mid-2026, the initial “Optimal Pathway” plan was streamlined. Australia will now buy (lease ?) three “in-service” (second-hand) Block IV-standard Virginia-class submarines from the US Navy, rather than a mix of one new and two used vessels.
The findings of this non-government enquiry may well force a reluctant government to finally address the glaring anomalies in this dodgy agreement.
I presume that the submarine deal with France was put in place following considerable research and deliberation by RAN marine engineers, consultant experts and parliamentary debate. Who were the experts that Scott Morrison consulted with before cancelling the French deal and proclaiming AUKUS? Or was it because he was Minister for Everything that he decided defy rationality and ignore public opprobrium?
Mediocrates, good points to mention.
Morrison, together with a compliant Governor General, managed to corrupt our constitutional arrangements and appoint himself to various ministerial positions without the knowledge, consent or agreement of our parliament.
This evidently contributed to his ability to initiate the AUKUS agreement and abandon the French agreement.
This all takes us into a Trumpian realm of government by Executive Rule without the normal checks and balances or parliamentary oversight.
Something we need to look into as a nation. In particular the credentials of any future GG.
I hope that the ministerial media minders in Canberra tune into theaimn.net which offers very useful and mainstream interpretations to protect our national sovereignty and to avoid war. There is nothing very Whitlamite about our current foreign and defence policies which are steered by military elites with a pro-US agenda.
Help prevent war over Taiwan’s status with your submission to the AUKUS Public Inquiry: https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/#make-a-submission: My submission for the AUKUS Inquiry team to investigate:
AUKUS Public Inquiry
I request that the AUKUS Inquiry consider these concerns and commence in-depth research on these issues. Research is required from expert witnesses on these issues.
First Concerns: Historical Background to AUKUS
The Murky AUKUS Past: It is important for the Inquiry to reveal the historical background to the AUKUS Decision. The circumstances which overturned the French submarine contract were never reviewed by the Morrison Government in 2021. These circumstances were embedded in intrigue at elite levels in the Australian Navy and supported by political leaders and the National Security Committee of the Inner Cabinet with a commitment to the US Global Alliance over national sovereignty.
Second Concern: The Transit Routes Available to AUKUS Submarines and to Rotational Visits by British and US Submarines through HMAS Sterling
Concerns about Nuclear powered submarines from Britain and the US approved entering Australia ports like HMAS Sterling on a rotational basis to 2032 with an ambiguous role for their nuclear weapons and the added security risks of patrol routes during a period of likely heightened tensions over the status of Taiwan. Both the Marshall Islands and Palau have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Third Concern: Reduced Security for Australia from Increased Regional Responses
Possibility of Reduced Security for Australia due to Strategic Tensions from the routes taken by the interim submarines into troubled waters in Asia and Micronesia
Fourth Concern: Financial Burdens of AUKUS including long-term effects of reduced Chinese investment in Australia on Security Grounds
Financial concerns including payments to France for the termination of the French submarine contracts and direct financial costs approaching $400 billion for AUKUS itself. There are consequential security barriers to Chinese investment in Australia due to our acceptance of Piller II Aukus technology. Chinese AI investment will be excluded on security grounds, This extends the costs of AUKUS into the domestic economy. There are additional costs and hazards from nuclear waste disposals in Australia and environmental hazards on overseas port visits.
Never give up on the political battle for a progressive majority Labor government with strong links to the Greens and other tolerant crossbech members. Australian trade union networks need to recruit with new zeal as these networks are the real foundations of thhe broader Labor Movement which is under real challenge in former strongholds.
5% first home deposits and 100k new homes (in a bucket of 10mil+) along with the recent half baked tax measures.
https://www.alp.org.au/our-policies/a-fair-go-at-your-own-home/
Unsupportable weak policies. Unfortunately the opposition is far worse, but neither are supportable. And inanimate object could hold office with better outcomes than either party.
*1.2mil homes, not 100k (first home buyer number)
How, when, where? Unclear. Paid by who? You!
Yes, lets have a stronger trade union base to push social housing along Bob. The rise of the far-right in Australia and compromises by Labor insiders is deplorable.
Cant we just deflate the obvious bubble to make all housing affordable again? Why must we try to publicly fund an additional 10% supply? 400k is a conservative build these days. Rough envelope maths = $480 billion. Or should we really pack em in?
Bob’s concerns are legitimate. The previous Labor Government in Queensland had a good record on social housing initiatives. Transport Oriented Development should be extending these initiatives close to major rail transport hubs. House and garden packages are a commitment to unaffardable housing by private developers under the Crisafulli Government. 100,000 new houses are proposed for delivery by developers in the Sunshine Coast hinterland near the M1 Motorway. This is receipe for transport chaos, future multi-lane motorways and unaffordable housing costs.