Submerged
As the US launches a review into AUKUS, Four Corners examines the future of the $368 billion submarine deal.
Reporter Mark Willacy and the Four Corners team travel to Washington, DC to speak with key players inside the Congress and the defence community.
One former Trump Defense Secretary says the program is moving too slowly.
Now, the Pentagon is reviewing the entire AUKUS deal with fears it might not align with the new administration's 'America First' policy.
In London, senior UK figures also sound the alarm. They warn of cost blowouts and delays in building the new AUKUS-class nuclear submarine with Australia.
Submerged asks the tough questions about what happens to Australia if Donald Trump decides the AUKUS deal doesn't serve America's interests – leaving Australia out of pocket and stranded.
Submerged, reported by Mark Willacy and produced by Ninah Kopel, goes to air on Monday June 16 at 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
The Orroral Valley fire inquiry was years in the making but it offered transparency
I'd never heard of Bumbalong. But during the Black Summer bushfires of 2020, this small New South Wales community between Canberra and Bredbo hit the news when a bushfire swept through, destroying homes, farms and livestock in a single day. I watched the flames myself, from Bredbo, as they crept quickly along the hills, sending embers ahead over great distances, igniting patches of dry grass in the surrounding paddocks. The residents who fought the blaze that day would have had little sense of the greater battle still being fought five years on. Some are still re-building after years living in caravans on their land, without even basic facilities like a flushing toilet. The findings of an inquiry into the fire by the ACT's Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker brought down yesterday included an apology. "This matter has taken far too long to be finalised," Chief Coroner Walker said. "I offer my apologies to those affected by the fire and its aftermath." It was the first time the hardship suffered by the residents had been officially acknowledged. This bushfire was no act of nature, it was started by an army helicopter across the border in the ACT. It's now well known the aircraft made an unplanned toilet stop on a hill in the Namadgi National Park at the head of the Orroral Valley. A hot searchlight underneath the helicopter ignited the dry grass, and the pilot hastily took off. The crew said they were focused on safety because they thought the helicopter was damaged. It would be at least 35 minutes after the fire started before Defence told the local firefighting authorities of the exact location of the blaze. The focus of the inquiry was what happened in those minutes. There had been other calls for an inquiry into the fire. It not only caused serious damage to Bumbalong, it also burned through 80 per cent of Namadgi National Park, and even threatened Canberra's southern suburbs, as it burned for five weeks. At the time, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he didn't want a "witch hunt", so the ACT's Chief Coroner set up her own inquiry. In the end, yesterday's findings were mild. She found there had been an "error of judgement", finding also it was not plausible that none of the crew thought to tell local authorities about the fire immediately. But there was still great value in the inquiry. The identities of the crew were suppressed, but they were compelled to give evidence. This produced a clear picture of how the events unfolded, including the conversations between the crew members which were recorded and played to the court. The inquiry facilitated a transparency that hadn't been there before. Before that, events had come to light slowly after questions from the ABC, revealing the helicopter crew never called in the fire during its flight back to Canberra Airport. Later, pictures taken by the crew emerged. The inquiry also revealed details, including that it was more than nine hours before the Emergency Services Agency Commissioner Georgina Whelan was told a Defence chopper was the cause of the fire. Interestingly the Chief Coroner found the delay in reporting the fire had little impact on the response by local authorities. The smoke had already been spotted from a fire tower within minutes, and firefighters called in. But as Chief Coroner Walker said, reporting the fire earlier would have been beneficial. "Failure to report the fire earlier, and failure of the Commonwealth to accept the overarching need to do so, does raise an issue of public safety," Chief Coroner Walker said. The Bumbalong residents were relieved to hear the Coroner's findings, saying at least someone has been found responsible. They are hoping the findings will help in their next round, a battle in the Civil courts with the Commonwealth over compensation for their losses.
Canberra Times
3 hours ago
- Canberra Times
Police should be obliged to do more on mental health
The risk of a Chinese invasion of our shores, which, let us be frank, is the sole reason for AUKUS protection, is vanishingly small. China's thousands of years' track record of never having sought to conquer other lands is reassuring. There has always been China, and beyond China were barbarians. A great defensive wall was built to keep them out.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
First home buyers baulk as average home in Australia passes $1 million
As the average price of a house in Australia passed $1 million, 37-year-old Nick Muldoon could only sigh. He moved from Melbourne to Perth last year to stay with his partner's family to save for a deposit for their first home — but he feels like the goal posts keep shifting. "It is also just exhausting, hearing that the prices are going that high is like it makes you feel a little bit sad. Like it, you know that dream is almost like out of reach," Mr Muldoon told the ABC. "You almost feel like you're disenfranchised a little bit, because especially, you know, everyone was sort of told that they could achieve [home ownership]. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the average dwelling in the country has reached $1,002,500 in the March quarter. That's the first time the average house price in Australia has surpassed $1 million, rising by about 0.7 per cent. The bureau said that Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland were the key drivers of the rise. Queensland has now reached the second highest mean price in Australia, behind New South Wales. The total value of residential dwellings in the country rose by $130.7 billion, about 1.2 per cent, to $11.4 trillion in the March quarter. Dr Michael Fotheringham from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) said this new milestone, while compelling, was just another small shift in what has been a continuing trend of higher house prices in the country. "It's not a sort of dramatic shift in circumstance … [but] it's sobering to look at that number," Dr Fotheringham told the ABC. "And when you think about average wages, average household incomes, and compare it to that figure, it does give a real sense of the scale of the challenge we have." Australia's housing crisis did not spring out of nowhere, Dr Fotheringham said. Decades of neglect by both sides of politics and governments at all levels was a major factor. However, he believed the Commonwealth was engaging in housing supply for the first time in long time. The federal government has targeted to deliver 1.2 million new homes by mid-2029. Some of the housing policies the Commonwealth pledged at the last election included allowing first home buyers to get into the property market with just a 5 per cent deposit without having to pay lender's mortgage insurance. The Commonwealth extended their first term policy "Help to Buy" to allow homebuyers to co-buy property with the government. It also committed $10 billion to facilitate the construction of 100,000 new homes for first home buyers. The policy, Dr Fotheringham said, was the first example of the government getting directly involved in housing supply. "It takes several years for these programs to really bear fruit. So we won't have huge amounts of new supply suddenly generated between now and Christmas. It's going to take time," he said. "The good news is that federal and state governments are treating housing as a top order issue these days. It's right up there with health, education and the environment. With the rise of house prices, some experts such as the Grattan Institute's Matthew Bowes fear inequality will likely continue to grow because housing represents most of the wealth held by Australians. Home ownership rates have been decreasing for those on the lowest incomes over the last few decades, and that was now increasingly also impacting middle income earners too, Mr Bowes said. "The main reason that is a problem is because of the role that home ownership plays, both in housing security, because renting is very insecure in Australia, and in wealth creation," Mr Bowes told the ABC. Mr Bowes said when low to middle income earners were locked out of home ownership, governments at all levels should be ensuring the rental market was both more affordable and secure. He said those on low incomes were struggling the most with housing costs. "They're the people who have faced the most dire consequences," he said. "So I think that focus on the people who are struggling most in the short-term is something that could be brought to Australian housing policy better." The Australian Bureau of Statistics highlighted Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland as the main drivers of the rise in the average house price in the country. Dr Fotheringham explained Australia had many housing markets, not one. Different markets even existed within each state and across a city. But the consistent pattern across the country was that housing was getting more expensive, and wages were not keeping up. "For a long time, Sydney has had the most unaffordable housing in the country, and amongst the most unaffordable housing in the world relative to incomes," he said. Data from Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) for the month of May found that Melbourne, once the second most expensive capital to buy a home, has a median house price lower than every capital city except for Darwin and Hobart. Aspirational first home buyer Nick Muldoon escaped "the rental trap" in Melbourne in exchange for Perth to save for a deposit with his partner. He pays about $600 a month for board at his partner's parents' home in Perth. But Mr Muldoon despairs when he reads that Perth is among the capital cities with the highest growth in prices. The couple have put off having children until they manage to buy a home. "We would want to build a family in a house that's our own, that we could build together," he said.
