There are very sound strategic reasons to continuously build and maintain heavily automated missile frigates and Air Independent Propulsion conventional submarines in Australia, as an alternative to spending $150B-$200B on unmaintainable AUKUS Nuclear Submarines. “I do not say, my Lords, the French will not come, I only say they will not come by sea” John Continue reading »
Government
Six years ago, John Menadue, Robert Manne, Tim Costello and I agreed that Australia’s refugee and asylum seeker policy was in a complete mess. The trouble started with the 2013 election campaign when Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott tried to outdo each other, pledging that the boats would be stopped and that anyone headed for Continue reading »
There has been a flurry of mention of the Australian War Memorial (‘AWM’) concerning the removal of Chinese-made security cameras from Government buildings . The new Chair of the AWM, Kim Beazley AO, announced that it would so do, out of ‘an abundance of caution’ (codespeak for ‘this is complete BS but we will do Continue reading »
Labor came to office last May, replacing a government that had steered Australia’s relationship with the United States to new heights of servility. Our ties with China were in tatters. Many had hoped that the change of government would usher in a shift to a more imaginative and less subservient foreign policy. Nine months later Continue reading »
It goes without saying, and even better with saying, that America’s destiny is now tied up with China, which means so too is Australia’s. There has, of course, been a lot of commentary on this and on the diplomatic role that middle powers play in an evolving relationship. What has been absent, to some degree, Continue reading »
Pedro Castillo, the Peruvian president, overthrown in a coup 7th December 2022, and then sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, clearly represented a threat to some significant forces. Following the overthrow, mass protests have spread across Peru, to which the government have responded violently, with 60 deaths in the past weeks. As per usual with Latin Continue reading »
Australia’s Foreign Minister, who advocates international law and better relations with Asian countries, has surrendered to the hawks in Canberra. Penny Wong told Parliament on 9 February that the way Australia goes to war will not change. She was responding to a question from Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John, whose bill for reform of the war Continue reading »
There is no way that the UK or the US would ever contemplate surrendering sovereignty over the control of its military operations to any other power. Australia should not either. If Australia is to acquire a fleet of SSNs, the government needs to negotiate an agreement that avoids counter-productive short cuts and ensures sovereign control Continue reading »
The vehemence with which the medical profession opposes any moves on behalf of nurses and other health professionals to move legitimately into Primary Health Care in their own right is telling. A system in which some professional groups spend an inordinate amount of time propping up the work of another is not to be abandoned Continue reading »