KEY POINTS:
- Former prime minister Paul Keating claimed France had offered improved terms on scrapped submarine deal.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied the claim.
- Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Mr Keating's rhetoric "belongs to another time".
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claims Paul Keating's blistering attack on the AUKUS deal had "diminished him", while Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the former prime minister's views on China "belong to another time".
Mr Albanese has also declined to confirm or deny Mr Keating's claim, made during a fiery appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, that France has offered better terms on its scrapped submarine deal.
, potentially a $368 billion deal for Australia to purchase UK-designed submarines and host US and British vessels in the interim.
Penny Wong says Mr Keating's views "belong to another time". Source: AAP / Lukas Coch / AAP
Labor had "returned [Australia] to its former colonial master, Britain", describing the deal as the party's worst foreign policy decision in a century.
He specifically singled out Defence Minister Richard Marles and Senator Wong, who Mr Keating claimed was "running around with a lei around [her] neck handing out money" in the Pacific, which he said was "not foreign policy".
'His prerogative'
Mr Albanese told 3AW radio on Thursday that neither were "shocked" by Mr Keating's attack, saying the former prime minister had previously aired his views "privately and publicly".
But he insisted China had "changed its posture and its positioning" in the three decades since Mr Keating was in office.
"I think it is unfortunate that Mr Keating chose such very strong personal statements against people. I don't think that does anything other than diminish him, frankly. But that's a decision that he's made," he said.
An artist's impression of what the AUKUS-class submarine will look like. Credit: Supplied by Defence.
Mr Keating also claimed France had returned with an updated offer to build nuclear-powered submarines within a shorter time frame than that of the AUKUS pact.
"I'll tell you something else, which I don't think that the media knows, but I know. The French government have offered the Australian government a new deal on the submarines," he told the National Press Club.
"That would be the new French nuclear submarine, the newest one in the world - 5 per cent only enriched uranium, not 95 per cent weapons-grade. [The] delivery [has a] firm date: 2034, [with] fixed prices. No response have the French had to that."
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What do we know about AUKUS?
Later asked whether Australia, under the current or former government, Mr Albanese did not respond directly.
"We have discussions and one of the things my government does is engage in diplomacy and engage in interaction with our allies and our friends. We engage in good faith. That is what we do," he said.
Mr Keating repeatedly argued that China had neither the capability nor the interest, given potential bilateral trade, to launch a ground invasion of Australia.
'Can't wish that away'
One of the Labor figures singled out for pointed criticism was Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who Mr Keating described as “unwise” and said had in opposition adopted the Coalition’s hawkish stance for political reasons.
Senator Wong rejected the critique, saying that, "in substance and in tone", Mr Keating’s broadside belonged to "another time".
"We don't face the region of 30 years ago. We don't face the region that we hope we had, we face the region of today, and we have to work to ensure the region we want for the future," she said.
"That's what this announcement is about and that's what all of our work has been about."
A $75 per week increase to the JobSeeker and Parenting Payments would cost $10 billion less over ten years. Source: SBS News
"I would say to Mr Keating to consider the evidence that was presented to the [United Nations] through the UN report on this matter. But I do want to just say something to the Australian Uyghur community, particularly the South Australian Uyghur community, with whom I've met," Senator Wong said.
"I understand this would have been distressing. I recognise the ... trauma."
The AUKUS deal will see nuclear-powered submarines developed in Australia by the 2040s, roughly a decade after Mr Keating claimed the French submarines would have been seaworthy.
, at a Defence site yet to be revealed. Australia currently has no high-grade nuclear waste disposal sites.
The former Coalition government's negotiations to form AUKUS, announced in September 2021, were highly secretive, with France claiming it was blindsided by the announcement.
Asked whether he thought he had been lied to by Mr Morrison, Mr Macron responded: "I don't think, I know".
In October 2021, US President Joe Biden conceded the announcement had been handled "clumsily", but appeared to claim he believed Australia had kept France in the loop.
"I was under the impression certain things had happened that hadn't happened," he said.
Australian taxpayers will still spend up to $5.5 billion on the defunct Naval Group deal, including more than $800 million in compensation for tearing it up.
