Some huge developments just came out of nowhere, well huge for Australia and the region anyway.
in 2016 we made a 60 billion dollar contract to build French submarines in Adelaide, the Barracuda class submarine. The class itself is a Nuclear class submarine but Australia has signed numerous agreements against the proliferation of nuclear weapons or the use of nuclear power and while many do want such things here there is still also quite resentment to the idea of nuclear weapons or power by the public in general. So instead Australia insisted that this nuclear submarine be redesigned to be diesel electric.
Anyway, out of nowhere today came the news that we are scrapping this whole program not only that but we are now part of a new alliance, not only that but we are now getting nuclear submarines. We are now part of a new alliance called AUKUS with the UK and US, the alliance is going to focus on the Indo-Pacific. The first announcement of this alliance was that the UK and the US where going to help Australia build nuclear submarines. We have sighed deals against this(though they say it will not break these deals but others say that if enriched uranium is needed it to power the subs it will) and much of the public are against nuclear power and weapons, yet this came out of nowhere with no consultation at all. It has completely blinded the French too. This quote was part of the article.
> France's foreign affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the decision betrayed "the letter and spirit" of cooperation between the two countries.
> "The American choice which leads to the removal of an ally and a European partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region ... marks an absence of coherence that France can only observe and regret," he said in a statement.
If we had wanted a Nuclear Submarine we could easily have just used the Barracuda class sub in it's intended format, there was no need to cancel this 60 billion dollar contract. I wonder legal ramifications this has. It does not bode well in other ways either, now that we are going to operate nuclear subs we will have to build a nuclear industry and if it needs enriched uranium then we will need to learn to manage and perhaps enrich that ourselves. It's not much of a jump at all to think that sometime in the future some politician will use it for other ends too.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-16/australia-nuclear-submarine-partnership-us-uk/100465814