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Shadow Defense Minister Andrew Hastie reacts during Question Time at Parliament House on July 28, 2022 in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Martin Allman/Getty Images)
SYDNEY — The trilateral defense pact known as AUKUS should remain the states of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States and should not welcome New Zealand or Japan as new members, Australia's opposition party's top defense expert has said.
“Listen, I think the focus of AUKUS should remain on the three countries that are already involved. And we need to be able to seamlessly transfer intellectual property,” said Andrew Hastie, shadow defense minister and former member for Australia. The Special Air Service (SAS) said in an interview with Breaking Defense newspaper on Wednesday.
The main objectives of the Security Agreement under Pillar 1 are for Australia to purchase 3-5 Virginia class nuclear attack submarines from the US and for the UK and Australia to build a small fleet of AUKUS SSNs for Australia. That's true. To deter China more effectively.
But the second pillar is even broader and consists of the development of a combination of the three countries' advanced technologies and capabilities in areas such as quantum computing, hypersonic missile systems, AI, cyber and electronic warfare. That is the most likely route for other countries to join AUKUS. Australian defense officials have briefed New Zealand about AUKUS, and Japanese officials have also expressed interest in participating.
Related: New Zealand “no guarantee'' in AUKUS, but debate is lively: Defense minister
Regardless of whether additional countries become formal partners of AUKUS, Hastie said he is in no way opposed to closer cooperation in the region.
“I think it's very important that we've made it clear that this arrangement is for our three countries, but it also has lasting implications for countries like New Zealand, Japan, Canada and other new friends around the world. “We need to find ways to work more closely with our partners,” he said. “But I think we can do a lot of work with many partners, especially in Southeast Asia.”
“And if we're going to keep the Indo-Pacific region prosperous and secure, we can't do it alone,” Hastie said later. “AUKUS cannot do it alone. We will do it through a coalition of countries and AUKUS will be a good starting point.”
Mr Hastie is a big supporter of AUKUS, but the Australian government's efforts to make a number of additions, repairs and improvements to Western Australia's submarine HMAS Stirling, where the Virginia submarine calls and where SSN AUKUS will ultimately berth, are said it was too late.
These improvements are expected to be completed by 2027, but the government is not expected to fund them until next year, which he said is “concerning”. But Mr Hastie is far more concerned about “Western Australia's severe housing shortage”.
“I have raised this with the Americans and the Pentagon. And we have to build probably more than 1,000 homes for both British and American families to live in,” he said. It is noteworthy that Hasty represents a district very close to his HMAS Stirling. Australia is in the midst of a severe rental shortage, prices are soaring and availability is extremely limited.
Mr Hastie said he had never received an explanation from the government about the funding for Western Australia, saying it was “always understood”. [there] Since the announcement last year, $9 billion will flow into Western Australia for this purpose. “We will know very soon in May what this budget will look like,” he said. “However, since last year, no new funding has been provided and inflation is eroding the purchasing power of the defense budget.”
He also has not been briefed on the government's defense budget since he took office. Defense Minister Richard Marles continues to say the government has significantly increased the defense budget, but the only reliable budget analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which is largely government-funded, shows that the budget The real savings turned out to be $1.5. AU$1 billion (US$970 million). All planned increases appear to come after the next election, whether Labor is in power or not. The next Australian federal election is scheduled to be held by 27 September 2025.
Mr. Hastie said he was concerned about financial issues, saying AUKUS would be “a big spender, especially with the maintenance budget needed for the Navy and Air Force, which operate such large capabilities.” Stated.
positive movement
While criticism of the budget could be perceived as a standard partisan spat, the highlight Mr. Hastie wanted to point out was the passage of a landmark arms export and security bill on Tuesday.
“I think it is very important to note that the opposition worked together with the Albanian government in the national interest to pass the bill that makes AUKUS possible. [US] president [Joe] “Mr. Biden has to certify and approve, and this is an export control matter that we've been working on.”
AUKUS export controls are necessary for the entire company to move forward. Without these, the three governments could not share the intellectual property, highly classified information, and many technical details needed to make nuclear submarine construction possible.
Mr Hastie and other Liberal MPs had been pressuring the government to create a “joint defense committee” organized along the lines of the intelligence committee here. Mr. Hastie was the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Agency.
Under the current system, the Senate and other parliamentary bodies oversee national defense. They have no access to classified material and much of Australia's defense budget, policy and operations are classified.
Ex-combatants have been calling for this reform for at least four years, recently arguing in an op-ed in The Australian: space. “
In an interview with Breaking Defense, Hastie said that as AUKUS grows, the new committee will bring two key benefits: industry insight and government accountability.
“The National Defense Committee will give industry a voice directly in Parliament through Parliament. I think this is a very important mechanism for holding governments to account, whether it's a Liberal government or a Labor government. '' he said. “AUKUS will be rolled out over the next 15 to 20 years. This committee should act like an unblinking eye and ensure that AUKUS is implemented as quickly as possible and in the best way for the national interest.” It is.”
