Less than a quarter of Australians believe the rationale for AUKUS has been explained.

CANBERRA — An inquiry into AUKUS organized by a former Australian Labor MP and defense chief has called for the Australian government to abandon the partnership focused on acquiring nuclear submarines, branding it “the worst, riskiest and most costly defense decision” the country has ever made.

Peter Garrett, a former minister and rock musician, helped establish the community-led inquiry in June to facilitate debate on the agreement, which was inherited by Australia’s Labor government from former center-right Prime Minister Scott Morrison and has attracted public criticism because it was never subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

The inquiry styled itself as an opportunity to host public debate on the Australia, U.K. and U.S. trilateral partnership but failed to attract input from any current federal government politicians. Garrett said the organizers felt the government had instead “chosen to give us the finger.”“My major objection to AUKUS in the first instance was that there was no debate. I mean, I’m a member of a political party where vigorous debate is, or should be, part of the ordinary course of discussing issues of importance,” he said at the National Press Club on Nov. 4.