Former Labor minister and musician Peter Garrett will lead a community-based independent inquiry into the AUKUS defence pact, several outlets report. The inquiry is launched by a group of Labor veterans and public figures who say that Australia has not received sufficient scrutiny over the costs and risks of the plan. The defence package is variously reported as worth about $368 billion to $369 billion and centres on long-term submarine-related capabilities developed with the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to the reports, Garrett will serve as the lead commissioner for a five-month investigation, scheduled to run from its launch on Tuesday and to deliver a report in October. Coverage also describes the inquiry as aimed at examining whether AUKUS will make Australia safer or create heightened exposure, including concerns about nuclear-related targeting risks associated with closer military ties to the United States.
No outlet disputes that Garrett is the inquiry’s lead figure, that the inquiry is independent and community-based, or that it is intended to review the pact’s cost and potential security implications, culminating in an October report.
