We’ve been recently gifted two rare cases of outstanding political leadership and bipartisan cooperation that will reverberate through time. The first is Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s bold decision to acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines via a new “three-eyes” alliance with the UK and US (hence “AUKUS”).

The Economist characterised this as a “profound shift” globally that will drive change in the “tectonic plates of geopolitics” akin to “Suez in 1956, Nixon going to China in 1972 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989”. Australia’s finest national security commentator, Greg Sheridan, described it as an “astonishing development” that had “gobsmacked” the world. Sheridan stresses that Labor’s bipartisan support is no less “historic”, although questions remain about the integrity of this commitment.