The US has celebrated its Independence Day with President Trump giving a hugely bombastic and historically inaccurate speech saying that he leads the greatest country ever and the American military will kick sand in the face of anyone it wants. What an ally. Then we look at an important speech given by Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy on 2 July. It was meant to be about Defence reform but he included a reference to Prime Minister Robert Menzies being a Nazi appeaser.
This received a predictable reaction and it’s unclear what the Minister hopes to gain by trying to turn Defence into a party political contest. At least he appears sincere about wanting to improve Defence – but for that to work the attitudes of people in the system have to change, along with some structural reform. He says that Defence has cumulatively wasted $29 billion – which is an extraordinary amount for which no one has been held to account.
On AUKUS the government has wheeled out Senator Raff Ciccone to defend the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines saying they are necessary because Australia is surrounded by water. This ridiculous argument gets repeated over and over. Of course Australia is surrounded by water – any idiot knows that. No one is saying we don’t need a Navy – what we question are the security benefits from this vastly expensive, risky undertaking and the government has no answers.
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