“There’s nothing wrong with having a plan B … as long as it doesn’t undermine plan A,” Pyne said. “I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t have a plan B, but I also don’t see a need for plan B.”
He also urged Australia against copying the British with a parliamentary inquiry into AUKUS, as called for by teal MPs. “We have far too many reviews of defence decisions … we have to get on with it. The last thing we need is a review [by] parliamentarians.”
Christopher Pyne tours the HMAS Collins submarine when he was defence minister in 2018.Credit: AAP
But Pyne acknowledged that amid the upheaval of President Donald Trump’s new approach to geopolitics and American allies, AUKUS lacked a social licence in Australia except among people who followed military affairs.
“There could be a lot more work done by Defence and by the government, and the opposition for that matter, on building social licence for AUKUS,” he said.
“If the public buy into AUKUS as a solution to the geostrategic situation that we face in the Indo-Pacific, then it’ll be a lot less likely that the naysayers will get their way.”
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Pyne left politics in 2019 and is now a defence industry lobbyist. He spoke to this masthead following his annual AUKUS summit in Washington attended by ambassador Kevin Rudd, retired British second sea lord Sir Nick Hine and several US politicians.
Public scepticism about the lengthy and expensive program, especially in the wake of Trump’s disruption, was a recurring theme at the conference.
“We need our politicians to fully understand and defend the budgetary consequences of our submarine program as it matures,” former British defence secretary Michael Fallon said.
“We also need to remind our publics of the original purpose of AUKUS. Far from casting doubt … we should now be doubling down.”
Former prime minister Scott Morrison, who struck the deal with then-US president Joe Biden and then-British prime minister Boris Johnson in 2021, gave a speech in the Canadian capital of Ottawa last week, in which he said the price of entry to AUKUS was higher than what Canada was currently prepared to pay.
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“It’s not a diplomatic luncheon club. It is a serious partnership designed to build the most advanced defence technology in the world,” he told the Canada Strong and Free Network, as reported by The Globe and Mail.
“With Canada investing less than 1.5 per cent – and that’s being generous – of GDP in defence, the price of entry is a lot higher than that.”
