Nedlands MP Johnathan Huston has abandoned his party’s support of AUKUS in a stinging tear down of the $368 billion AUKUS submarine program leaked to media.
The two-page document titled AUKUS: The Case Against, prepared by the former businessman and Army intelligence officer as a “discussion paper”, raised concerns about the cost and loss of defence sovereignty as a result of AUKUS as well as the potential for it to make HMAS Stirling a target of enemies once it starts hosting nuclear submarines.
“Despite the rhetoric of ‘record spending’, defence has entered an austerity drive unseen in decades. Service chiefs have been ordered to delay projects, slash maintenance budgets, and reduce workforce spending as the cost of AUKUS devours the defence budget,” Huston said.
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“AUKUS was sold as a technological leap. In truth, it’s a long and costly crawl. We will not see the first nuclear submarine under Australian command for decades.
“By the time we build it, the strategic environment may have changed entirely. The submarines of the future may not even need crews.”
Huston’s comments place him at odds with his own party, which has emphatically backed AUKUS at both state and federal levels, with the opposition’s defence spokeswoman Libby Mettam recently accompanying Defence Industries Minister Paul Papalia to the UK as a show of bipartisan support for AUKUS in the state.
It may also have threatened his position in the party with Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas saying it was a mistake but that he needed to speak to him about it in further detail.
“[Liberal MPs are] entitled to their views and there is a correct forum and procedure for them to be able to raise them for discussion. This is not it. The writing of a paper that then gets circulated and then finds its way out to broader circulation is not the way to do it,” Zempilas told ABC Radio on Monday.
“Like many of us Johnathan is an inexperienced MP, I’m also an inexperienced MP. We have only been quite a number of us in the parliament for seven months.
“Learning our way around this space is something that we are all doing but is important to learn fast.”
When asked whether Huston’s position in the party was safe Zempilas said he would speak to him further.
“I’m a believer that everybody who might make a mistake in any walk of life should be given opportunities to demonstrate that they get it that they can do better next time that they understand the team approach,” he said.
“I don’t think that chopping somebody off at the knees straight away in any walk of life is necessarily the right way to go but I’ll hold that thought until we’ve had a good conversation about what has happened here.”
Huston was approached for comment.
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