“This letter said this was a ‘false characterisation" of Rudd's comments and that ‘Dr Rudd has never opposed the AUKUS agreement and never claimed it was not in the national interest’.”
Mr Bond said a “fair-minded person” would interpret the former prime minister’s comments about AUKUS on the ABC's 7.30 program in 2021 as "negative".
“And you could easily argue that saying the agreement to buy nuclear submarine – which has been the key part of the AUKUS deal – left Australia ‘strategically naked’, amounted to "colourful hyperbole".”
“As my colleague Jack Houghton noted on the Sky News website this week … Rudd was also interviewed by SBS French about AUKUS in 2021.
"Rudd is quoted in the article as calling the ditching of the submarine deal with France in favour of AUKUS ‘botched diplomacy’ – the article says: 'Mr Rudd emphasised that this decision is not in the best interest of the Australian taxpayer dollar and … ‘certainly not in the best interest of Australia's relationship with France’.
“Yet Rudd denies ever saying the AUKUS agreement wasn't in the national interest.”
No comments:
Post a Comment