I do not pretend to be any sort of defense expert but I think the
nuclear powered submarines have enormous advantages over conventional
submarines. A country the size of Australia means that conventional
submarines would spend days and days getting from the south up to the
Darwin area.
They would be vulnerable while refueling, charging batteries etc.
The speed, range and time on station makes the nuclear sub superior.

The panic about the Chinese "spy" ship is ill informed.
Everyone knows where the cables are laid and near Victoria they go to Tasmania.
The location of others going to Hawaii, Singapore etc etc are well
known. Of course the navy might have placed submarine detection gear
on the ocean floor so that could be a good reason to try and detect them

The Conservative NZ government had no problem with that Chinese "spy" ship being in their harbour.

"I do not pretend to be any sort of defense expert" why not Bezza, we have a bunch of those experts right here on the Forum, and they don't know which end of a gun fires the bullets.

Australia can't trust America, elect a Mini-Me Trump like Dud Dutton and he will sell Australia out.

Gabbling about the future is much easier and more comfortable than dealing with the present - e.g the circumnavigation of Australia by Communist warships and Communist spy ships; the latter happily sailing in our waters between the mainland and Tasmania.

The only reactions to the spy ship have been Tony Burke ‘s claim of “we know exactly where it is”, and Albanese's “I wish it wasn't there”. Prime Minister ‘Please tell me if my arse is on fire’ doesn't know whether it's the ADF or Border Force that is “monitoring” the situation.

Communist China’s civilian and military machinations are entwined. Despite what the Communist mouthpiece, the Global Times, claims, the spy ship is definitely spying on Australia's underwater cables; plus what's going on at Osborne in Adelaide, and HMAS Stirling in Western Australia.

They might even be able to drop a few mines along the way. Our drongos in politics and defence wouldn't have a clue what might be happening.

Why don't they have surveillance aircraft dogging the ‘Tan Suo Yi Hao’ at the very least. We probably don't have a ship or crew that could get there before the Communists are safely back in their home port!

It's quite possible that we will never see the AUKUS submarines because the US will think that our ‘wish the Communist weren't in our waters’ pissants wouldn't know how to use them.

Xi Jinping's extra praise for his little mate handsome boy's weak approach to Communist aggression won't do much for our relationship with America either.

stay with AUKUS, cancel the subs
mhaze,
Ditto, use the money & the sub manufacturers to build land-based coastal missile stations around Australia instead. That way no-one apart from anyone attacking us loses ! Even some of the useless bureaudroids will still receive their Super !
If no Australian subs & war ships head into potential enemy territory the less of an argument the potential enemy has to come closer than our territorial boundaries !

Come to think of it, Australia needs a Coastguard more than a Navy !

Build a Trump tower or two in every major Australian city, and our future is assured!