Plan to build Aukus submarines in Adelaide is ‘a fairytale’ and ‘pork barrelling’, Alexander Downer says

Alexander Downer has questioned the central plank of the Aukus plan which would take place after Australia acquired US Virginia-class submarines. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The $368bn Aukus plan to build nuclear submarines in Adelaide has been labelled “a fairytale” and “pork barrelling” by Alexander Downer, Australia’s longest serving foreign minister.

Downer said on Monday that the central plank of Aukus would “drain the national economy”, joining a number of elder statespersons with concerns about the feasibility or desirability of building nuclear submarines.