‘Not the deal promised’: Labor’s Ed Husic questions Aukus pact that will deliver secondhand subs

Australia needs a backup plan for the Aukus submarine agreement, Labor MP Ed Husic has warned, arguing sluggish American production and the “transactional nature” of the Trump administration have put the multi-billion-dollar defence deal at risk. The defence minister, Richard Marles, this week agreed to US requests for Australia to accept three second-hand Virginia-class nuclear submarines, rather than a combination of new and old vessels . Husic spoke out during a closed-door meeting of the Labor caucus on Tuesday. It was the most significant internal criticism of the $368bn deal – agreed by the Morrison government in 2021 and endorsed by the then-Labor opposition – since heated debate at the ALP national conference three years ago. Labor ultimately continued its support of the multi-decade pact. Husic said production rates of submarines in the US were too low for Australia to realistically expect boats to be handed over in the early 2030s. The deal requires the sitting US president to agree to release submarines based on the US having an adequate supply for its own navy, even though Australia is paying to boost production. “We need to be open as a nation that we are not going to get the deal that was promised to us,” Husic said. “Given how transactional the Trump administration is, you can almost imagine them saying ‘we give you these, you will do this with them’, and so there’s an active sovereignty question there. …