It is really a pity France can't afford a couple of Attack AIP SSK, but that's another story...
I disagree, because of how much more capable nuclear power makes a sub. Need to sprint for 1 week to get to helicopter range of the coast to medevac a dude, then sprint 2 weeks back to where you would have been had you not needed to do the medevac?
Nuclear power, baby.
The place AIP/advanced batteries makes sense is for a giant "swimmer delivery vehicle" like HISutton's propsal for a USN diesel boat. Something that had tools to support SEALs etc ashore with [whatever you can stuff into a Virginia Payload Module], plus some torpedoes to protect itself.
Agree, it takes decades to develop the skill base to operate nukes safely and effectively as a sovereign capability.
That said, Australia has to start sometime or be left behind, and the French deal of nuclear Suffren, built in Australia, offered the best entry level option to achieve that.
The USN pulled that up pretty quickly, through selection into what is damn near a cult of personality around Admiral Rickover. Nukes must learn things exactly the same way Rickover did, no translations allowed. Nukes must also learn to follow procedures and regulations exactly. I know of a nuke that got in Captain's Mast level trouble for not wearing WHITE underwear (uniform was summer whites, and you could see what underwear you were wearing through the uniform it was so thin).
Another example I may have mentioned before:
My last duty station before I got out was Submarine Squadron 19, which primarily exists to make sure that training is up to standards for the ships assigned to them. The Squadron Nukes (a bunch of Chiefs-and-above) came back from their week-long Refresher Training on one ship and had some comments about that boat's nuclear training program. Because my dad was a teacher, I asked if one sentence were shareable. The Squadron Nukes all agreed that this specific sentence was shareable with other people. When I shared it with my dad, he winced. Here it is:
"Training was not rigorous enough, in that there were no individual examination failures, nor were there any overall question failures."
Written tests for nukes are expected to be so hard that someone MUST fail, and one question per exam is supposed to be so difficult that NO ONE gets it right. (failing a question means that you get assigned extra lessons on whatever that question covered, failing a test means you get those extra lessons for every question.)