We bring you a special edition podcast from the Greek island of Zakinthos to discuss the current US administration’s review of AUKUS. It’s rather ominously worded to see if it fits President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda. Why do we always need to find out about these things from the Americans? Why can’t our own Defence Minister Richard Marles ever come clean about things such as how much we are giving to the US, and why they want us to lift Defence expenditure to 3.5% of GDP? As for the review itself, why would the US want to end the deal when there are still billions more dollars to be extracted from Australian taxpayers and gullible politicians?
To listen to the podcast, click here.
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The worrying thing is tRump May very well use AUKUS as a bargaining chip in all sorts of negotiations. Everything from Better Trade deal with China to Dismantling the PBS or unrestricted access to Australian Markets and open slather on Australia’s Minerals. This deal was always going to screw Australia and that’s when the U.S wasn’t in the hands of a Mad man. Our only safe route is to cancel the deal ourselves , swallow the loss and make unpleasant decisions on getting our Defence Force Capability back on track.
We have a Defence Minister – pardon me, Deputy Prime Minister – who will give the US whatever it wants, and then try and add in some further bribes.
You raise some very good points Kym. $90 billion for 12 Attack Class subs that would be in construction now doesn’t really sound that bad when looking at the AUKUS’s near $400 billion and possibly more price tag and the uncertainty if we’ll get them when needed. Would it really be that bad if AUKUS pillar 1 falls over? There is no mutual defence clause in the ANZUS treaty and the US seems less that reliable at present. This might be the perfect opportunity for Australia to finally mature as a nation and stop looking for big and powerful friends to defend us, the UK let us down in WW2, what’s not to say the US wouldn’t in WW3. We should develop the mindset that we are solely responsible for our own defence and start objectively looking at what capabilities / platforms we should be purchasing and just get on with it, post haste!
I agree – we have to lose the mindset that we are 100% dependent on the US. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Trump is a businessman first and politician second. He will no doubt be trying to get the best deal for the US which isn’t neccessarily going to be in our best interest.
When dealing with him you have to willing to play hardball and if neccessary be prepared to walk away. What we should be doing is running our own AUKUS review.
The idea of Australian Ministers such as Richard Marles playing hardball with the US even for 5 seconds is totally laughable, unfortunately.