Peter Hartcher’s deep dive into the AUKUS submarine deal

Journalism can be a frustrating game sometimes. Coming up with a story idea, getting people to talk to you and writing the piece in an engaging way doesn’t always come easy.

But every so often the planets align for a magic moment, which is what happened last year when I was covering Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s attendance at the G20 summit in Rome.

As Emmanuel Macron was leaving a press conference on November 1, Australian media collared the French president and asked questions about the Morrison government’s decision to cancel a $90 billion submarine contract with France in favour of a new partnership with the United States and United Kingdom, known as AUKUS.

Macron had spent weeks fuming over the decision and the French were privately telling everyone who asked that the Australian government had deceived Paris for months while the AUKUS deal was being stitched together.

I was in Rome as the Herald’s Europe correspondent and asked Macron the obvious question: do you think Morrison had lied to you? “I don’t think, I know,” came the response. It was a direct hit on Morrison’s character and Macron knew it.

I raise this because the issue behind that Rome exchange – the AUKUS agreement – has had little attention during the federal election campaign. A new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines goes to the heart of the rising security tensions in our region. The build program will also cost an absolute fortune and we still have no details about who will design and build the boats. And finally, despite extensive reporting from the Herald and other media on the deal, we have not yet had a definitive account of what really happened behind the scenes.

That changes tomorrow when the Herald’s political and international editor, Peter Hartcher, publishes the first of a two-part series digging into what really happened. Peter has been working on this for months and the finished product is a ripper.

Peter has spoken to several high-ranking US officials for this series, including the Indo-Pacific co-ordinator in US President Biden’s National Security Council, Kurt Campbell. Campbell was in the room when Biden was first briefed on Australia’s request for nuclear-powered submarines.

Part one will appear on our website tomorrow and as the front cover of the News Review liftout in print. Part two will be published as the cover of the Sun-Herald’s Extra section, and will also lead our homepage.

I don’t think – I know – that you will want to read it!