Malcolm Turnbull says Labor has failed to answer if Aukus deal compromises Australian sovereignty

Malcolm Turnbull says the Albanese government has failed to answer fundamental questions about the Aukus nuclear submarine pact, including whether the arrangement with the US and Britain compromises Australian sovereignty.

Responding to a new signal from Anthony Albanese that Labor would have pursued the contentious agreement had he been in power at the time Scott Morrison landed the pact, the former prime minister said Australians were entitled to know the answer to basic questions, like whether we could operate our own military assets.

Turnbull has been raising this risk since the Morrison government reached agreement on the submarine proposal with Joe Biden and the then British prime minister Boris Johnson.

The former Labor prime minister Paul Keating has articulated very similar concerns, which has been an ongoing point of friction between himself and the current government.