Labor does not need to scrap the cuts to pay for AUKUS in full. The implication is obvious: Labor could fund AUKUS by amending the tax cuts, most likely by halting the benefits for the wealthiest workers. These cost $254 billion over the coming decade AUKUS costs $58 billion over the same period. The immediate political tension is about the stage three tax cuts. Albanese is not only seeking to position Labor as the strong party on national defence but as the responsible party in funding that defence. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he supports AUKUS, but does he back the decisions needed to pay for AUKUS? The Coalition has to decide its response. It shapes decisions on the federal budget for this term of parliament and others to come. The number forces a debate on hard choices about what Australia can afford. At first glance, it looks like Albanese and Marles would be better off if the number had never been disclosed. Yet the focus is on the $368 billion figure. Australia will gain a military power it has never had before. Canada, a NATO member, does not have them. This is an historic decision - the first time the US has transferred these submarines to an ally. This brings forward the nuclear-powered capability by almost a decade compared to the original AUKUS plan. This week’s biggest advance was the move to acquire Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from the US in the early 2030s. It not only offers a false sense of certainty but also draws attention away from the most important changes in the AUKUS update. It puts a hard number on a very sketchy forecast over a timeframe full of factors that will change. There is already a real problem with the $368 billion. He repeated the figure of 0.15 per cent of GDP. “I’ll let you all do the maths,” Marles said on Tuesday in Canberra, a few hours after the briefing in the hotel room in San Diego. Asked about the $368 billion after the announcement, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles avoided saying the number. Political leaders often try to play down costs like these because they can make their ideas look unaffordable. What the documents did not reveal was the lifetime expense of the entire project from the purchase of interim submarines from the US to the construction of the future fleet of nuclear-powered vessels in Adelaide. It began at 9.15am in San Diego on Monday (4.15am in Canberra on Tuesday). This was the first media briefing of the day and was limited to journalists who were travelling with the prime minister in the US to cover AUKUS in depth. The documents handed out to about a dozen reporters, who were gathered in a hotel meeting room, included the $9 billion cost of the updated pact over the next four years and the $58 billion cost over the next decade. With Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about to join United States President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for the announcement, the journalists were being briefed before they reported the news. The journalists were on speakerphone with government advisers to check key facts about the AUKUS alliance shortly before new details were to be unveiled at the Point Loma naval base nearby. A small group of Australian journalists gathered around a mobile phone in San Diego on Monday, local time, for a call that will influence national debate for years.
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