Australian Government Spent $250,000 Covering up French Submarine Deal

21 Oktober 2021

A size comparaison chart between submarines (image : H.I Sutton)

A quarter of a million dollars in taxpayer money has been spent by the Australian government trying to keep the original price of the country’s submarine project with France hidden from public view.

The Department of Defence and French military company Naval Group have racked up legal costs totalling $247,875 from government-funded solicitors in an attempt to keep the initial price quoted by the French company a secret.

The French-Australian nuclear submarine program has been shrouded in controversy since Scott Morrison abruptly scrapped the agreement in September after cutting a better deal with the US and UK through AUKUS.

When then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull first announced the Naval Group project in 2016, he described it as being worth around $50 billion.

By the time the French contract was shredded by Mr Morrison in 2021, the Commonwealth placed the total predicted costs closer to $90 billion.

If the project had gone ahead, it would have been the largest Defence procurement in Australian history.

But independent Senator Rex Patrick told NCA NewsWire he believed the original cost of the submarine program provided by Naval Group was only a fraction of that price.

“I think the original price is nowhere near $50 or $90 billion. I think it's somewhere in the order of $20 to $25 billion,” he said.

See full article The West