'Worst, riskiest and most costly': Independent inquiry urges Australian government to terminate AUKUS pact

An independent inquiry has called for the Australian government to immediately terminate the AUKUS submarine treaty with the United Kingdom and the United States, describing the pact as the riskiest defense decision in national history.

"We concluded that AUKUS is the worst, riskiest and most costly defense decision ever made by an Australian government," said the report. "AUKUS should be scrapped."

Former government minister Peter Garrett and former Australian Defense Force chief Chris Barrie, two of the five commissioners conducting the public inquiry into AUKUS, presented the final report, titled Surrendering Australia: the AUKUS Deception at the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on Wednesday.

"AUKUS jeopardizes our sovereignty, further entangles us with US war planning and actually endangers our security," said the report.

The deal undercuts Australia's longstanding commitments to nuclear non-proliferation, it added. "Australia would be the first non-nuclear-weapon state to store high-level weapons-grade waste, for tens of thousands of years."

In September 2021, Australia, the UK and the US established the AUKUS trilateral security partnership, embarking on nuclear-powered submarine cooperation and raising concerns over nuclear proliferation risks.

The pact was "conceived in secret, without parliamentary consideration or any consultation with the Australian people," the final report said.

After receiving more than 1,000 submissions and conducting 10 days of public hearings around the country, the inquiry did not uncover any "convincing foundations" for AUKUS, it added.

The report made 16 recommendations, including that Australia immediately terminate pillar one of the AUKUS deal, under which Australia would acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines in the 2030s and 2040s, due to current delivery schedules "most likely" being unachievable.

Additionally, it said that plans for a US naval base near Perth in Western Australia should be suspended until "critical questions" regarding nuclear security and health and environmental safety for the local population are fully examined.

The independent inquiry was established after successive federal governments ruled out holding a major public review of the pact.

Former senator Doug Cameron welcomed the report, according to the Guardian.

"With rising cost of living and unemployment, spiraling inflation and interest rates, it is beyond comprehension why the Australian government is throwing billions into the war chests of the US military at a time when the Australian people are crying out for solutions at home," said Cameron.