Too risky, too costly: AUKUS should be scrapped, finds Peter Garrett-led inquiry

Updated November 4, 2026 — 12:48pm,first published 12:36pmThe AUKUS submarine pact should be scrapped immediately because it threatens national sovereignty, risks dragging the country into war with China and may never deliver the promised submarines, a damning independent inquiry has concluded.The union and community-backed inquiry led by former Labor minister and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett has accused successive Coalition and Labor governments of concealing the true costs and dangers of the agreement while refusing to subject it to proper parliamentary scrutiny.Its report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception, warns the submarine delivery timetable is likely unachievable and could leave Australia without an effective underwater fighting force.An AUKUS submarine.ADF“AUKUS is the worst, riskiest and most costly defence decision ever made by an Australian government”, Garrett told the National Press Club.Among 16 sweeping recommendations, the inquiry calls for the immediate termination of AUKUS Pillar I – the nuclear-powered submarine program – as well as a royal commission into the agreement and an independent audit of its costs by the Australian National Audit Office.It also demands the suspension of plans to host rotating US nuclear-powered submarines near Perth, a halt to AUKUS work at Adelaide’s Osborne naval precinct and an end to Australian submariners serving aboard American vessels.The inquiry urges the Albanese government to develop an alternative submarine acquisition strategy, overhaul AUKUS Pillar II (cyber security and other weapons) and fundamentally recalibrate Australia’s strategic relationships with Washington and Beijing.It warns Australia could become a target in any US-China conflict, while taxpayers risk losing billions of dollars to American and British shipbuilding industries without receiving the promised submarines.The report, which backs longstanding criticisms from former prime ministers Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull, calls for a comprehensive national security strategy and accuses both major parties of surrendering critical defence decisions to foreign powers.more to come...Rob Harris is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email.From our partners