Malcolm Turnbull has accused Scott Morrison of “a diplomatic debacle of the first order” after new emails showed Australian defence officials reported “good progress” on the French submarine project just two weeks before the deal was cancelled.
The former prime minister said the emails – first revealed by Guardian Australia on Monday – showed that “far from the French being aware the project was going to be cancelled, they were being told the project was in good shape”.
The defence minister, Peter Dutton, hit back at Turnbull, telling the ABC’s 7.30 program “there was no lying to the French” about the now-scrapped project and his job was not “to please the French government or former prime ministers”.
Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show Australia’s defence leadership received positive advice about the project, just weeks before Australia unveiled the Aukus pact in mid-September. The US and the UK are now pledging to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
The defence department secretary, Greg Moriarty, promised in an email to colleagues on 30 August to “ensure that the good progress to date is part of the advice we take to government”. He said it would also be expressed in a video link meeting between Australian and French defence and foreign affairs ministers the same day.
Three days earlier, Gregory Sammut, the defence department’s general manager of submarines, told Moriarty that France’s Naval Group’s offer for the next phase of work was “affordable and acceptable”.
Turnbull and Dutton appeared on ABC TV on Thursday night to discuss the emails, which the 7.30 program had also obtained under FoI.
Turnbull said the emails confirm that the submarine program for the new Attack-class submarines “was on track, was in good shape, was progressing well, and was well within its budget”.
Turnbull – who announced the deal with France when he was prime minister – said it was “extraordinary” that a project that was on track was “blown up” by the Morrison government.
He said Morrison – who he increasingly criticises – had failed to be “truthful and honest”, which had damaged Australia’s diplomatic relationships.
“Look, regardless of what you think about the submarines, this was a diplomatic debacle of the first order and the consequences being that it has undermined Australia’s honour, security and sovereignty,” Turnbull said.
Dutton said the emails needed to be viewed in context. He said the discussions about switching to nuclear-powered submarine option were “compartmentalised” within the defence department.
“There were a single digit number of people who had access to what was a very high level discussion and decision-making process within the government,” he said.
Another tranche of documents obtained by Guardian Australia in December showed a defence department investigation into the option of nuclear-powered submarines, launched in 2020, was to be handled on a “strictly need-to-know basis”.
Dutton said the government had acted on advice from Moriarty and the chief of the defence force, Angus Campbell, “that a diesel-electric submarine was not going to cut it and would not provide the defences for our nation into the 2030s and 2040s”.
“We’ve taken the decision based on the expert advice that is in our country’s best interests and I think the French have moved on,” he told the ABC 7.30 chief political correspondent, Laura Tingle.
“You and the ABC haven’t. And the Guardian. And Malcolm.”
Labor’s defence spokesperson, Brendan O’Connor, said the government had “botched the future submarines process, while also mishandling the diplomatic side and subsequent fallout from the Aukus announcement”.
“While Labor supports the Aukus deal, it shouldn’t detract from this government’s constant bungling of defence contracts,” O’Connor said.
“We hope the Aukus agreement, which is still yet to deliver any contracts, will be handled with a lot more care.”
