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Paul Keating has blasted Scott Morrison over the decision to build nuclear submarines, saying they will be impotent compared with Chinese naval power by the time they are ready in about 2040. 

The former Prime Minister said the boats will be so outdated that using them would be like throwing toothpicks at a mountain. 

'Eight submarines against China in 20 years' time, a handful of toothpicks at the mountain,' he told the National Press Club on Wednesday. 

Former prime minister Paul Keating appears virtually to address the National Press Club

In September, Mr Morrison cancelled a contract with France for 12 conventional submarines in favour of a new partnership with the US and UK which will give Australia the technology to build nuclear boats for the first time.

But Mr Keating said they will take too long to arrive and pale in comparison to China's navy which already has six nuclear-powered subs and more than 50 diesel-powered subs.  

Mr Keating, who led Australia as a Labor Prime Minister between 1991 and 1996, said the eight nuclear submarines would have no impact militarily. 

'These Virginia-class submarines were designed in the 1990s – by the time we have half a dozen of them it'll be 2045 or 2050 – they'll be 50 or 60 years old.

'In other words, our new submarines will be old tech – it'll be like buying an old 747.

'And here we are, we're going to wait 20 odd years to get the first one and 35 to 40 years to get the lot. For what will be then very old boats.' 

Mr Keating said instead of partnering with the UK and US, Australia should have asked the French about nuclear-powered submarines.

'If we were unhappy with diesels, the obvious choice was the most modern submarine in the drawing board, which is the French nuclear submarine,' he said.

This graphic compares the strength of the US navy and Chinese navy

Mr Keating said Australia was falling in line with the US strategy to use nuclear 'hunter killer' submarines to contain China. 

'The whole point of these hunter killer submarines is to round up the Chinese nuclear submarines and keep them in the shallow waters of the Chinese continental shelf before they get to the Mariana Trench and become invisible,' he said.

'To stop them having nuclear capability towards the United States.'

Mr Keating insisted that China has no desire to expand its territory in the east and said Australia should instead be focussing on its own defence with conventional subs.

'[Former Deputy Prime Minister] Kim Beazley and I built the Collins [class submarines]. I built the Anzac frigates, they were built for the defence of Australia. Their range was to stop any incoming vessels, military vessels against us,' he said.   

But Mr Morrison wants US or UK-style nuclear-powered submarines, which are faster, stealthier and can stay at sea longer than conventional submarines, by 2040.  

Mr Keating also blasted the Morrison Government over its April 2020 call for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, which infuriated China and prompted huge tariffs on Australian imports such as barley and wine. 

Instead, he said Australia should show China respect for the way it has brought millions of people out of poverty with rapid economic growth over the past few decades.

'I think what the Chinese want is the acknowledgement of validity of what they have done and what they have created,' he said. 

Mr Keating, who has frequently defended the Chinese Government, said Australia also should not get involved in Taiwan.  

The latest criticism of the submarine program comes after French ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault accused Australia of stabbing France in the back for the way it failed to tell Paris it was dropping the contract.

Mr Morrison denies lying to President Emmanuel Macron before the announcement and claims France should have realised the $90billion deal was on the rocks - but Mr Thebault said this was 'fiction' and used a telling example to prove that France was deceived. 

He referred to a joint statement released on August 30 after a video conference between French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly and their Australian counterparts Marise Payne and Peter Dutton.

The statement said the ministers discussed the importance of the submarine deal - but at the same time Australian officials were planning to scrap the agreement and announce a new partnership with the US and UK. 

A joint statement (above) released on August 30 said Australia and France had discussed the importance of the submarine deal. Just two weeks later it was scrapped

'What is a hard fact is that still on August 30, French and Australian ministers of foreign affairs and defence had a dialogue, and they agreed a joint communique,' Mr Thebault said.

'It was available to the public and widely acclaimed for its ambition. It agreed the following sentence, ''the two countries underline the importance of the Future Submarine program''. 

'Do you agree on such a communique when there's the slightest doubt on something so massive as the official backbone of your co-operation? Maybe on Mars, but not that I know on this planet,' he said. 

Mr Thebault insisted his leader was 'misled' and this amounted to a lie among allies. 

'Was the president lied to? Yes, he was,' he said.

'Maybe there's a difference between misleading and lying. But, you know, among heads of states and governments, when you mislead a friend and an aIly, you lie to him.'    

An awkward handshake in Rome between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (right) and French President Emmanuel Macron (left) at the G20 summit this week

In a bid to prove he did not lie to President Macron, Mr Morrison's office earlier this week leaked a personal text between the leaders to show the French President knew the agreement was on shaky ground.

President Macron wrote: 'Should I expect good or bad news for our joint submarines ambitions?' 

A secret leaked text message (pictured) appears to show that Emmanuel Macron was given warning that Australia would torpedo its $90billion submarine deal with France

Quizzed by reporters in Dubai on Thursday - on his way back from the Glasgow climate summit - Mr Morrison did not deny leaking the text. 

'Claims had been made and those claims were refuted,' he said. 

Mr Morrison had conceded Mr Macron was not aware of negotiations with the US and the UK, but said the French leader was told as early as June that Australia was consulting on other options for submarines.