Aukus costs balloon with more cash and staff for submarine agency amid ongoing search for nuclear waste dump

The budget for Australia’s contentious Aukus deal has ballooned by more than $430m over four years, with the agency charged with securing the country’s nuclear-powered submarines requiring a massive injection of funding and staffing. The Australian Submarine Agency’s resourcing for next financial year will jump by a third – from $385m to $512m. Staffing at the ASA is also set to jump, from about 883 positions to 1,209 next year, an increase of 37%. The 2025-26 budget papers forecast the agency having total resourcing of $1.7bn for the four years to 2028-29. This year’s budget has expanded that forecast to more than $2.13bn for the same time period, an increase of $431m. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email In the previous budget, ASA’s total annual budget peaked at $529m in 2026-27. It will now peak at $641m, two years later in 2028-29. Aukus is the trilateral deal signed by the Morrison government with the United States and United Kingdom, the so-called “Pillar One” which promises to deliver Australia its own fleet of conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines. The budget papers say the Aukus agreement is a “prudent response to deteriorating strategic circumstances”. …