Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has offered bipartisan support to pass budget savings the Albanese government will need to fund the massive submarine program, expected to cost more than $200 billion for at least eight submarines.
Asked on the ABC's 7.30 program if the Coalition was prepared to "think outside the usual partisan box" to help the government make budget savings in the national interest, Mr Dutton said: "The short answer is, yes.
"There will always be points of difference. If there are different ways in which we can provide support to the government, we are happy to do that."
The opposition leader cited the example of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the overall cost of which both sides of politics have said is on an unsustainable trajectory.
Mr Dutton said the most crucial period to focus on was securing funding for the AUKUS project over the next four years.
He said: "We would encourage the government to be transparent about the money that's involved, be up-front with the Australian people because it's a costly process."
The details of the submarine deal, which could cost up to $386 billion over the next three decades, have since been unveiled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in San Diego.
NDIS shouldn't fund defence, advocates say
Speaking from Western Australia, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australia could not afford "not to do this", describing the project as a key investment.
"It's an important investment which will deliver huge returns for our country, for its security and economy," he said.
"In offsetting $9 billion over the forward estimates, we are not adding to the substantial pressure which is already on the budget.
"Beyond that, we've already got the $24 billion attack class provision as the beginnings of offsetting what we can from the $50 billion to $58 billion cost over the coming decade."
The attack-class submarines were in the proposed French submarine plan that was scrapped by the former federal government.
The government will need to find money in the future, but Cassandra Goldie, chief of the Australian Council of Social Service, said the NDIS should not be touched.
"What is unconscionable is for us to immediately go to questioning the costing of the NDIS as a way to fund defence spending," she said.
"We will absolutely oppose any notion that we should be looking at the NDIS for that purpose of funding defence."
Australian-made nuclear reactors would not make 'economic sense'
Mr Dutton took over the position of defence minister while the details of the submarine program were still a closely guarded secret within government and the defence establishment.
"It was a compartmentalised arrangement … our thought all the way through was that the size of the US system would mean that it would leak at some stage, but fortunately, that didn't happen," Mr Dutton said.
Mr Dutton credited Anthony Albanese for supporting the project while in opposition.
"They did it on the basis that it didn't create a nuclear domestic industry," he said.
He rejected the idea of Australia manufacturing its own nuclear reactors for its future fleet of submarines, saying it was "not realistic".
Mr Dutton said, "it wouldn't make any economic sense, frankly".
The opposition leader was asked about previous comments from Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead, who is leading the Australian Navy's task force on the nuclear submarine project.
Mr Mead told 7.30 last month that Australia was not envisaging building its own reactors "at the moment".
In response, Mr Dutton said Mr Mead was an "exceptional Australian" and said there was "no doubt he would be leaving options open for decades and decades into the future".
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