I am optimistic that history will see the recent AUKUS public inquiry report as helping to steer our government away from a catastrophic blunder.

It shows that the proposed AUKUS deal is outrageously expensive, useless for our defence and exposes us to dangerous risks.

With these findings in the public domain, the government has to reconsider its meek acceptance of Scott Morrison’s sneaky secret arrangement.

The report, launched in Canberra earlier this month, is the outcome of a crowd-funded public inquiry. It was probably the biggest exercise of public participation in our recent history.

The findings are solidly based on a mountain of evidence. The commissioners processed more than 1000 written submissions and heard more than 150 oral presentations in eight cities.

The process involved two former prime ministers, former senior ministers, defence experts, representatives of trade unions and community organisations as well as hundreds of concerned citizens.

And the commissioners were an extraordinarily well-qualified group of distinguished Australians, giving their findings real gravitas.

Eye-watering cost

The government has estimated the eight nuclear submarines would cost $368 billion, but the report warns the real cost could be significantly more – and we would also have to budget hundreds of billions more for managing the radioactive waste that will be produced.

I can’t get my head around that big a number, but the report gives some useful comparisons. It is about 10 times what it would cost to close the decades-long public school infrastructure gap.

It is about 10 times what the government says it needs to save to keep the NDIS viable.

It is about six times what it would cost to wipe out the nation’s entire HECS-HELP debt.

It is enough to build about 180 major hospitals or about 1.4 million affordable houses.

It is a huge amount of money that we would be committed to spending, when the government is being urged to make funding cuts to ease inflationary pressures on households, or spend in other areas to relieve real problems.

Worse than useless

Of course, money is no object if the project is necessary to keep us safe. But the report shows that buying these submarines would not help our defence at all.

Because nuclear submarines are much larger than the Collins class boats now being used by the Navy, they can’t operate in the shallow water around our northern coast.

They are designed to help the US Navy threaten its Chinese counterpart.

The report warns that we would abandon our sovereignty and be spending taxpayers’ dollars to augment the American fleet in the Pacific.

It also shows that we could provide our Navy with the sort of submarines that would be really useful for defending Australia for a fraction of the AUKUS budget.

The nuclear submarines would actually be worse than useless.

They would be locking us into supporting whatever military adventure the US undertakes. The first two years of Donald Trump’s second term as President shows how dangerous that is.

We have seen erratic behaviour – threatening Canada and Denmark – as well as appearing to blame Ukraine for not conceding territory to Russia. Even worse, we have seen the attack with Israel on Iran, contrary to international law and having no clear objective, producing another “forever war”.

There is a real risk that American hawks could start a war with China over its wish to re-absorb Taiwan. AUKUS would drag us into such a conflict, which could slide inexorably into the disaster of nuclear war.

The report warns that we would be making Australia a target by locking our submarine fleet into the US navy.

So what should we do?

It is time for Richard Marles to step up and take responsibility as Minister for Defence.

His primary task is to use public money wisely to defend the country. Now the truth about AUKUS is out, he must give the required 12 months notice to get us off the hook.

We must scrap what the report calls “the worst, riskiest and most costly defence decision ever made by an Australian government”.

Since we have this experience of an awful deal being negotiated in secret, he must start a transparent process to get our Navy the boats it needs.

Ian Lowe AO FTSE is an emeritus professor in the School of Environment and Science at Griffith University, and co-president of the Australian Peace and Security Forum