Bill for new Australian submarines tops $36 billion

Taxpayers will be faced with a massive $36 billion bill to provide the Royal Australian Navy with a fleet of 12 next-generation submarines.

That is more than the annual $35 billion Federal education budget, just shy of the $42 billion of the Government's stimulus package to ward off the global financial crisis and more than a third of the $100 billion the nation spends on health each year.

A report out today warns the Government that trying to build the complex 4000-tonne submarines in Australia would be fraught with risk.

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