2024 Walkley Book Award

Nuked investigates how the Morrison government secretly worked against plans for the French to build Australia’s new submarine fleet, and organised a new defence pact, AUKUS. In 2016, the French won Australia’s biggest-ever defence contract, a multi-billion dollar deal to build 12 conventionally powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. By 2021, Scott Morrison announced the AUKUS pact and a plan for nuclear submarines to be built in South Australia, scrapping the deal with France.

Andrew Fowler spent nearly two years piecing together how the deal had been done, wading through thousands of pages of US, UK and Australian defence reports and gaining access to confidential French military files. He interviewed many of the main people involved and talked to sources in Paris, London, Washington and Canberra. Amid debate about the necessity of strengthening the Australian public service’s independence to resist executive overreach, this August it was revealed that the National Anti-Corruption Commission was investigating some elements of the submarine acquisition program.

Andrew Fowler has been a journalist for nearly 50 years. He was a reporter for the London Evening News, acting foreign editor on The Australian, a reporter for Channel 7 and SBS Dateline, the ABC’s Four Corners and Foreign Correspondent. His work stretches from Timor and black South Africa’s liberation struggle to the impact of WikiLeaks on journalism and government accountability.