Paul Keating says AUKUS the 'worst international decision since' WWI conscription

The fervent AUKUS critic also described Australia's landmark nuclear-powered submarine deal as the "worst international decision" since WWI conscription, saying China posed no invasion threat to Australia despite rising aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

Details of the decades-long plan between Australia, the US and the UK to share nuclear-propulsion technology and a new submarine design were revealed on Tuesday in a major announcement the countries leaders hope will act as a deterrent to the exponential growth of China's military.

Three US-built Virginia class are being fast-tracked for Australia's navy, with the first expected to arrive in 2033 ahead of five AUKUS-designed submarines slated for delivery from the early 2040s.

But the former Labor prime minister, who has heavily criticised the deal since its 2021 announcement, called the trilateral pact "irrational in every dimension" and "an affront to public administration".

Mr Keating, in a nine-page statement ahead of his appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, slammed the deal and those involved in securing it, including members of both major parties and senior public servants.

"The Albanese government's complicity in joining with Britain and the United States in a tripartite build of a nuclear submarine for Australia under the AUKUS arrangements represents the worst international decision by an Australian Labor government since the former Labor leader, Billy Hughes, sought to introduce conscription to augment Australian forces in World War One," he said.

"A contemporary Labor government is shunning security in Asia for security in and within the Anglosphere.

"We have been here before: Australia's international interests subsumed by those of our allies. Defence policy substituting for foreign policy. But this time it is a Labor government lining us up."

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Mr Keating later during questioning praised the Collins class submarines instead, which will be phased out by 2040 and replaced by the AUKUS ships, as providing Australia with a much stronger defence.

"A border with no one, shallow waters. We don't need 8000 tonne submarines. Collins was [4000 tonnes]," he said in response to questions.

"We could have 50 Collins class boats and 15 at sea and we'd have a much stronger defence than this rubbish that the government's doing."

Mr Keating also dismissed recent economic coercion by China as a "threat", saying the word should only be applied to military threats.

When asked whether China's trade bans and dumping of Australian exports posed a threat, the outspoken Labor figure said it wasn't the same.

On cyber attacks, Mr Keating said all countries did it, pointing to Australia's 2013 spying scandal in Indonesia and saying it happened because security agencies - who he called "ning nongs" - had called the shots.

"You can't impute, as your question imputes, that a tax or a tariff on wine or barley is equivalent to an invasion of the country," he said.

"China does not threaten Australia, has not threatened Australia, does not intend to threaten Australia."

Instead, China was a "lonely state" that would "fall over themselves" to have a proper relationship with Australia.

"We've provided them with wheat, we provide them [with] all, all sorts of things, investment," he said.

"They are 12 flying hours from us. We have a continent of our own, a border with no one. No border disputes with them. Perfect?

"No, no, we've manufactured a problem. You know, don't let the sleeping dogs lie. You know, we've given the old dog a kicking."

While the deal itself was squarely in Mr Keating's sights, it was his own party's senior leaders that took the brunt of the extraordinary attack.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had not responded or met with him to discuss the AUKUS agreement despite requests sent to him in February, Mr Keating said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was also a target of Mr Keating's derision, mocking the minister's approach to diplomacy in the Pacific.

"Running around the Pacific Islands with a lei around your neck, handing out money, which is what Penny [Wong] does is not foreign policy," Mr Keating told the press club.

"It's a consular task."

Earlier, his statement described Defence Minister Richard Marles and Senator Wong as "seriously unwise ministers" who left the party with a "policy depression on Asia" by adopting the Coalition's foreign and national security policy stances.

"Penny Wong had spent five years rustling not a leaf - and was not about to start. There was to be no khaki election for her," he said.

"Marles, though well-intentioned, completely captured by the idea of America, couldn't wait to join the pile on.

"And the-then opposition leader not ever having displayed any deep or long-term interest in foreign affairs, fell in with Wong and Marles as leader of the great misadventure."

Foreign leaders were not immune from the former prime minister's spray.

Mr Keating labelled former British prime minister Boris Johnson as a "fool" who destroyed the UK's place in Europe and questioned US President Joe Biden's lucidity.

"The American president can hardly keep ... put three coherent sentences together. You know, he was happy about it all," Mr Keating said.

His attack continued against the Office of National Intelligence, and its head Andrew Shearer, who he described as "neo-conservatives", along Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which he labelled a "US cell".

Journalists posing questions to the long-serving Labor figure were also derided by Mr Keating, who called their questions about possible hypocrisy between his stance and China's actions as "dumb" and "invalid".

The Canberra Times has contacted Mr Albanese and Senator Wong's offices for a response.