SYDNEY, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Australia will become more vulnerable and less safe, and its capacity to make its own decisions will be further eroded, unless it changes its current policy course, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Monday.

Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull reacts as he speaks during an interview in Sydney on February 26, 2026. (File photo: AFP)

Speaking at a hearing of the AUKUS Public Inquiry at NSW Parliament House in Sydney, Turnbull said the partnership had made Australia even more dependent on the United States, while whether Australia would eventually receive the planned nuclear-powered submarines depended on decisions taken and industrial developments in the United States and the United Kingdom.

"We have virtually no agency -- no independent agency at all," he told the hearing, adding that whether one is a supporter or a critic of AUKUS, the pact involves "a massive sacrifice of Australian sovereignty."

Turnbull and other former government officials, along with representatives of Australian civil society organizations as well as experts and scholars, attended Monday's hearing.

Outside the venue, members of the public staged a rally against AUKUS.

According to the schedule of the AUKUS Public Inquiry, four more hearings will be held in three different cities across Australia before a report is produced by October.

The review will look into various issues, such as whether AUKUS will jeopardize Australian sovereignty, whether it will make Australians safer, whether the country will receive the submarines, how the nuclear waste will be stored, etc.

AUKUS refers to the trilateral security partnership between Australia, Britain and the U.S.