Australian Collins Class Submarines Offline

Since Labor has taken office in 2007 I have noticed a considerable focus removed from our Defence forces. The cancellation of the Seasprites (too hard basket for Labor they can't fix anything esp build submarines!) and 4th AWD only says to me they are 'quietly' cutting expenditure hoping the media won't notice. Most are not noticing as the MSM are not willing to attack Rudd. Good example of this is the Australian of the year yesterday called detention centres factories for producing mental illness ( From The Australian : TWO senior Rudd government ministers have dismissed concerns over mandatory immigration detention a day after the newly named Australian of the Year, Patrick McGorry, likened the detention facilities to "factories for producing mental illness".

As Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Immigration Minister Chris Evans reiterated their support for the policy, Professor McGorry "clarified" his criticisms of the government's asylum-seeker detention policies and said he had been referring http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/gillard-champions-mandatory-detention-in-face-of-criticism-by-australian-of-the-year/story-e6frg6nf-1225823751976 )
So in light of the media blackout against Rudd we are left to see for ourselves with the internet and Rudd wants to censor that too!
Labor of the 21st century and not the Labor of Curtin's days and we are seeing less emphasis on defence.
Now this beckons with why do we have submarines at all if only one is being used!
This article from The Australian states:
HMAS Waller is the only boat in the fleet of six still operational.
From Defense Daily:
The failure of a generator aboard HMAS Farncomb is just the latest problem faced by its fleet of 6 Collins Class diesel-electric submarines – which are now reduced to just 1 operational vessel. That readiness issue presents an immediate financial headache for Australia’s government, and adds a longer-term challenge to the centerpiece of Australia’s future naval force.

Australia needs to buy US made nuclear powered submarines to ensure we can cover the vast amounts of sea, shipping lanes, special ops and theatres of intelligence gathering. At the moment we can only rely on surface assets (ships and spies in foreign countries) to gather intel for us. In a defence posture we need to focus on reliability and assure that we buy off the shelf and not a 'design'. The Collins class have proven to be a disaster in terms of reliability and providing the service we assumed we would get, but it is a highly capable boat when everything works (unfortunately it doesn't and this is often!).
If anything we need to conduct a royal commission into how this disaster came to be. We need to ask US and Australian submarine experts to consult with the RC and give us good technical analysis. If we are going to build quiet diesel subs (though we should have a minimum of 10 nuke boats) we should ensure we are prioritizing reliability before anything else. One almost sunk and that was due to a 'design flaw'!! A water pipe from the outside straight to the diesel was not backed up and when it broke (as these things do!) it poured 15 tonnes of water into the sub in 8 seconds.
At least if I was appointed as 'the man' for providing a transparent recommendation to the Government for the type of boat and how it should be built, I would bet $10000 that I would succeed in delivering, if followed, the path to achieve a boat where functionality was consistent from the time of commissioning until the time of decommissioning with the usual caveats (like in events of war if parts are unavailable etc). And when I say transparent, I mean open to the newspapers and public so the Government could not tarnish myself as the Government would do in its cause to not ever be blamed for anything.