Australia's longest serving foreign minister Alexander Downer believes the ditching of the $90 billion submarine deal with France was never going to be good news for the European country.
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Australia's decision to switch to a US or UK nuclear-powered submarine under the AUKUS agreement has provoked a strong exchange of words between French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
It overshadowed Mr Morrison's trip to the G20 summit in Rome and the UN climate change conference in Glasgow.
Mr Downer, who served under the Howard government, does not believe Mr Morrison, or even UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden, could have handled the situation any better.
"There was never an easy way to do it, even if they had given Macron a heads-up, there still would have been a very negative reaction," Mr Downer told Sky News' Sunday Agenda program.
"There is no perfect outcome here. The best outcome from Australia's point of view is to put our national security first and having more sophisticated and more lethal submarines is very much in our interest and in the interest of the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region."
But he is optimistic Australia's relationship with France will heal over time.
"We do need a good relationship with France. We just have to move on and hope that over time the relationship will repair and I'm sure it will," he said.
But federal Labor is not so forgiving of Mr Morrison's handling of the situation, even though it backs the AUKUS initiative.
Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen latched on to President Macron's accusation that he was lied to by Mr Morrison and the leaking of a text message of a conversation between the two.
"This guy is a liar and it's now impacting on our national security," Mr Bowen told ABC's Insider program.
"The leaking of the text exchange with Emmanuel Macron, which was reckless and extraordinary and damages our credibility internationally."
He said honesty and trust is important domestically and in international affairs.
Meanwhile, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was asked by a journalist if he had ever felt Mr Morrison had lied or deceived him.
"No," Mr Andrews replied. "The answer is no."
Australian Associated Press
