In Thursday’s The Australian Financial Review Defence Minister Richard Marles sharply shifted the justification for the government’s wild purchase of nuclear submarines from the likelihood of a Chinese military invasion of Australia to simply the protection of sea lanes – sea lanes, Marles argues, on which Australia depends.

In just one week following my address to the National Press Club, wherein I claimed China had not threatened Australia, was not intending to threaten Australia and would be unable to threaten Australia, in the event that any threat materialised as an amphibious invasion, the government has dropped maintenance of that central argument for its nuclear submarine purchase to now one devolving to a need and a rationale of protecting Australia’s sea lanes.