Err Lego it wasn't me that mentioned the French subs and nuclear.
My question is, as we will have no refineries we will not be able to
refuel them in a hot war OR even a lower level confrontation if a
single oil tanker is sunk on its way to Australia.
Three nuclear subs from the US might well be cheaper and give more sea
time as they are refuelled every three or four years.

Bazz, you seem to have forgotten we have allies!

Is there any good reason why we can't refuel in Singapore?

To Bazz.
I was not responding to your post, I was responding to the author of this article.

Deisel/electric submarines are obsolete. Everyone who has any brains knows that. That is why the RAN can not get enough crewmen to man the 6 (actually 5) Colins class submarines they already have. Who wants to go to war in an obsolete steel coffin deathtrap?

Each of these new French submarines will supposedly cost $5 billion each, but everybody knows that whenever Australia has bought drawing board only weapons systems, the price has always ballooned. The F111 price went through the roof, and we ended up buying the F18 because it was supposedly cheaper than the F15 which had much better performance. When the F18 was bought, it was more expensive than the F15.

The USA built three "Seawolf" class SSN's at US $2.8 billion dollars each which is supposed to be the most advanced submarine ever built. They have now began a new 'Virginia" class which is basically a much cheaper "Seawolf" at US $1.8 billion each. Australia is going to buy 12 much inferior and experimental French submarines at least two and a half times the price of an American SSN. Australia is only one of a few countries in the world that the USA would sell this technology to.

But Australia does not buy weaponry for military reasons, we buy them for economic or political reasons. We can't upset the Greenies by buying effective weapons. And we have to buy the SA vote even though they all vote Labor anyway.

The reason why, is because we buy wea

Aiden;
No reason at all provided our opponent does not make it impossible to
access Singapore, Taiwan or Korea, or those refineries have not been
put out of action or are out of range when needed.
It could be that a demand that our subs not be refilled at those
refineries, else they would be attacked.

Of course it does not necessarily mean that a strong naval power
would be involved, perhaps just ISIS or some similar offshoot, as
an Indonesian Islamic terrorist threat to destroy the refineries.

It does not even have to be a hostile action, just industrial
accident that puts one of those three refineries out of action or
an Iranian attack on Saudi terminals/refineries, or an Iranian closure
of the Straits of Hormuz.

The upshot is any of those scenarios can generate a very sudden and
quick shortage of diesel fuel worldwide.
Don't rely on "friends" it will be everyone for themselves.
There is almost no slack in the system. The US would be the most
unreliable of allies as they import 45% of their usage.

There is one further complication, in the event of a shortage we could
not afford to give the navy diesel as it would be needed to feed the cities.