AUKUS SCAM
For a nation of twenty-eight million people to tether its entire fiscal and sovereign future to the fading industrial capacity of the Anglosphere is not just ambitious; it is a reckless gamble that prioritises the interests of Washington and London over the safety and solvency of Canberra. The brutality of this arrangement begins with its sheer fiscal weight. At an estimated $368 billion through the 2050s, the submarine program acts as a budgetary vampire, hollowing out the rest of the Australian Defence Force to pay for a handful of hulls. This is not merely a large expenditure; it is an opportunity cost that forces the abandonment of asymmetric tools like drones and mobile missile systems that are actually relevant to modern warfare. We are effectively buying a fleet of Ferraris we cannot afford to park while the roof of the national house leaks, sacrificing healthcare, housing, and education for a platform that may not even be fully operational for decades, if ever.
Beyond the cost, AUKUS represents the functional death of Australian strategic independence. By choosing nuclear propulsion, Australia has entered a state of permanent technical dependency. Unlike conventional vessels, Australia cannot maintain, refuel, or independently operate these reactors. We are now tied to American and British technicians and supply chains in perpetuity, effectively turning the Royal Australian Navy into a subsidiary of the US Seventh Fleet. Regardless of which flag is painted on the side of the boat, the structural reality is that Australia is now incapable of refusing a call to arms from Washington. We have outsourced our most consequential national decision—the choice to go to war—to a foreign power whose political landscape is increasingly volatile and isolationist. We have essentially paid hundreds of billions of dollars for the privilege of losing our autonomy.
The delivery of these vessels is equally steeped in fantasy. The American industrial base is currently struggling to meet its own production targets, and the notion that US shipyards will prioritize Australian orders over their own national security requirements during a period of global tension is a dangerous delusion. We face a catastrophic capability gap in the 2030s as the aging Collins-class retires with no immediate replacement, leaving the nation's maritime approaches entirely undefended. We have traded a "bird in the hand" for a "ghost in the bush," leaving us vulnerable at the exact moment regional tensions are expected to peak. This strategic vacuum is compounded by the diplomatic damage done within our own neighborhood. By arming ourselves for deep-strike operations, we have fueled a regional arms race and alienated ASEAN partners like Indonesia and Malaysia. Rather than finding our security in Asia, we are seeking security from Asia alongside two colonial-era powers, turning our largest trading partner into a permanent enemy and ensuring that Australia remains a high-priority target in any future superpower conflict.
Ultimately, AUKUS is a surrender of national agency. It assumes the world of 2050 will mirror the world of 1950, with the United States as an undisputed hegemon. If that bet is wrong, and the geopolitical shifts of the mid-2020s suggest it is, Australia will find itself isolated, broke, and trapped in a conflict it didn't choose, equipped with weapons it cannot fix, and burdened with the world's highest-level nuclear waste. It is a toxic legacy that mortgages the future of the next three generations for a seat at a table where we are the only ones paying for the meal.
Thankfully, I’ll be well dead by then.
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