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July 24, 2026
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has broken ranks with Pauline Hanson on AUKUS, branding the submarine plan "absurd" and "not credible" in a blow to the party's standing on national security.
Senator Roberts told a podcast last month that nuclear submarines would never be built in Adelaide as promised under the plan, while accusing former prime minister Scott Morrison of selling out his opposition to net zero to get the deal across the line with the US and UK.
Both Senator Hanson and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce have strongly backed AUKUS as a critical defence initiative. But Senator Roberts, who has described the US as the "world's greatest terrorist organisation" and accused the US Air Force of spraying toxic "chemtrails", declined to toe the party line on the submarine pact.
"It's absurd," he said. "We've got the highest prices of electricity in Australia in South Australia and we're going to build a submarine there? Build many submarines there? Come on, it's not credible."
Asked whether he backed the initial phase of the AUKUS plan to purchase three US Virginia-class submarines, Senator Roberts said: "Again, we need to know more."
He claimed AUKUS was "a headline" that masked Mr Morrison's behind-the-scenes dealings with counterparts Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, who wanted his government to commit to the UN's net-zero agenda.
Mr Morrison, a longtime opponent of symbolic climate commitments, publicly committed Australia to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in the lead-up to the UN's 2021 climate conference, about six weeks after AUKUS was announced.
"We know that Joe Biden apparently leaned on him ... Boris Johnson at the time in Britain leaned on him, and he came back championing UN net-zero, which was a complete sellout," Mr Roberts said. "We need to know what the hell Morrison sold, whether it was his soul, whether it was Australia's sovereignty, whether it was climate bullshit."
Mr Morrison told The Australian's editor-at-large Paul Kelly in an interview for his new book, The Twilight of Exceptionalism, he had backed net zero because the policy had the support of capital markets and Australia needed to avoid being "ostracised" by the global economy.
"I only did net zero because I was comfortable with the policy. But having got there, I thought it would help Kurt (Campbell, a senior US diplomat) and that it would help Boris (Johnson)," he said.
Senator Hanson said last month she believed in AUKUS, declaring it "needs to happen".
"We need to have that agreement with our allies," she said.
Mr Joyce told parliament in early June internal Labor Party opposition to AUKUS was "incredibly dangerous".
"AUKUS is not there, really, to look after a situation where a totalitarian regime is attacking the UK or the US. It's there to protect us," he said.
The Coalition said Senator Hanson needed to pull Senator Roberts into line. "If she refuses to act on Malcolm Roberts it will demonstrate One Nation is a threat to the US alliance," opposition defence spokesman James Paterson said. "One Nation may say they support AUKUS and the US alliance but they would put it at risk with people like Malcolm Roberts sitting around the cabinet table in a Hanson government."
Senator Roberts has embraced a raft of fringe views, describing the US in a 2024 podcast interview as "the world's greatest terrorist organisation" that had been hijacked by "globalist parasites".
He backed the debunked "chemtrails" conspiracy theory, praised Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, claimed Covid vaccines caused miscarriages, and said Covid deaths had been "staged".
One Nation is facing heightened scrutiny amid its soaring performance in recent opinion polls. The latest Newspoll put the party's primary vote at 30 per cent, placing it on level pegging with Labor, and well ahead of the Coalition.
The poll had Senator Hanson trailing Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister 32 per cent to 46 per cent, with Angus Taylor coming third at 22 per cent.