‘World has changed’: Albo dismisses Keating

Anthony Albanese has dismissed Paul Keating’s latest blast at his government over the AUKUS nuclear submarines deal, saying the world has changed in the three decades since the Labor legend was prime minister.

Mr Keating, in an interview on ABC’s 7.30 on Thursday, said the Albanese government was “likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States”.

“This is a party which has adopted the defence and foreign policies of the Morrison Liberal government,” he said.

“This is a sellout.”

But the Prime Minister was unperturbed by the views of the 80-year-old Mr Keating, who was voted out of office 28 years ago.

“Paul was a great prime minister that ended in 1996,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Perth on Friday.

“Paul has his views. They’re well known.

“The world has changed between 1996 and 2024. My government is doing what we need to do today, and everyone will get a go here.”

Mr Keating has been vocal in his criticism of the tripartite deal between Australia, the UK and US since it was announced in 2021 when Scott Morrison was prime minister, once calling it “the worst deal in history”.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said Mr Keating was entitled to his views, but said Australia was facing “the most complex strategic circumstances that we’ve had to deal with since the end of the Second World War.”

“Characterising our relationship with the United States in that way is not right, nor is it fair,” Mr Marles said from Canada.

Meanwhile, Mr Albanese and Mr Marles have defended the AUKUS deal after US President Joe Biden updated Congress.

Mr Biden sent a letter to the US Congress on Thursday, updating the deal that would allow for the transfer of nuclear material to Australia.

Mr Marles said this did not mean nuclear waste would end up in Australia.

“That is the agreement that we reached with the UK and the US back in March of last year and so all this is doing is providing for the legal underpinning of that,” he told ABC radio.

“So to be completely clear, there is no circumstance in which we will be taking waste from any other country.

“We made clear in March of last year that we will be responsible for our own nuclear waste and that will involve the disposal of the spent nuclear reactors.”

Mr Albanese said the updated AUKUS agreement would not involve the transfer of nuclear waste.

“There’ll be no nuclear transfer from either the US or the UK That’s the detail. That’s very clear, and that’s not part of the arrangement,” Mr Albanese said.

“We’ve agreed to have nuclear-powered submarines. That’s what we’ve agreed to and the transfer of technology that’s related to that.”