National Press Club Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has launched a swinging attack on the Labor government over the AUKUS submarine agreement, accusing Anthony Albanese of relying on “two seriously unwise ministers, Penny Wong and Richard Marles”. Keating lashed the deal for a tripartite build of nuclear-powered submarines as “the worst international decision by an Australian Labor government since the former Labor leader, Billy Hughes, sought to introduce conscription” in the first world war. “We have gone from a defend Australia to a forward defence policy,” Keating said, while insisting China posed no threat to Australia. He made his criticisms in a long speech and question-and-answer session at the National Press Club. In a direct challenge to Albanese, Keating said: I dare the prime minister to explicitly suggest or leave open the question that Australia might go to war over Taiwan – at the urgings of the United States or anyone else. Keating said the Chinese
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President Biden, PM Albanese and PM Sunak on the AUKUS Partnership PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: It’s an honour — honour to be here to welcome Prime Minister Albanese and Prime Minister Sunak. And it’s my honour to welcome you both to the United States as we take the next critical step in advancing the Australia, U.S., UK partnership — AUKUS. It’s an unusual name, “AUKUS,” but it’s a powerful entity. Video Below You know, when our countries first announced AUKUS 18 months ago, I’m not at all sure that anyone would have believed that — how much progress we’d be able to make together and how quickly we’d accomplish it. And I want to thank the members of all our teams who helped bring us to this pivotal moment sitting here in front of us. Thank you all very much. Secretary Austin; Secretary of the Navy Del Toro — (applause) — thanks for letting us come to your house; Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Gilday — where are you, Admiral? There you are. And thank you for hosting us at Naval
PM Anthony Albanese Press Conference PM ALBO: Thanks very much. This will be a short press conference for reasons that are obvious for those of you who are travelling with us to Tokyo. I am incredibly honoured and humbled to have been sworn in as Australia's 31st Prime Minister. Australians have voted for change. And my Government intends to implement that change in an orderly way. This morning, we had sworn in the interim Ministry that you see before you here in order to enable myself and Senator Wong to visit Tokyo for the Quad leaders meeting. In Tokyo, we will also have important bilateral meetings with President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida and Prime Minister Modi. I received a phone call last night and had a very fruitful and positive conversation, renewing my acquaintance with President Biden. The relationship with the United States is our most important, along with our relationships in the region and our multilateral commitments as well. The meetings that we will have, no
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