Piers Akerman: Leftist thinking has Australia practically defenceless

Australia’s defences are all but non-existent, and the Albanese government’s leftist thinking is to blame, writes Piers Akerman.

The only war Labor likes to fight is the class war and, as a result, our defences are all but non-existent. We might fare well against New Zealand but we are not even a minor player in global terms – and the Albanese government’s leftist thinking on defence, as on nuclear energy and open borders, is to blame.

Nothing has changed since the union movement cripped Labor prime minister John Curtin’s unsuccessful efforts to martial union support for our troops in World War II.

The late Hal Colebatch, whose friendship I cherished since schooldays, detailed the appalling saga of the war waged by key trade unions from 1939 to 1945 in his masterful account Australia’s Secret War.

Wharfies smashed equipment they were meant to load for our soldiers operating in New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, our warships sailed to and from combat zones without ammunition, and planned rescue missions for Australian prisoners-of-war in Borneo were abandoned because wharf strikes left rescuers without heavy weapons.

Officers had to prevent Australian and American troops from killing striking trade unionists. In all, about six million working days were lost directly through strikes.

Diggers on the Kokoda Track in 1942. Officers had to prevent Australian and American troops from killing striking trade unionists after wharfies smashed equipment they were meant to load for our soldiers operating in New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. Picture: Damien Parer

Today, we have a military that is under strength by about 7 per cent, and recruitment efforts are risible. Adverts emphasising diversity dreamt up by woke advertising ideals in cahoots with desk-bound administrators in Canberra aren’t working.

The harsh reality that outgoing Defence chief Angus Campbell doesn’t wish to admit is that we need men and women in our defence forces who are prepared to kill.

General Angus Campbell. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

The Department of Defence needs an overhaul from the top down if we are to have a real fighting force. Start with those in charge of the procurement process, which has been historically abysmal.

We don’t need further reviews of reviews, which is the solution Defence Minister Richard Marles has under way. At this time, we are not prepared for war, yet we should be because there is no telling when we will need to face an enemy. The Ukraine government was assured that Russia wasn’t going to invade, and the Israelis weren’t prepared for the murderous invasion of Hamas terrorists and their Gazan supporters who participated in rape, torture, murder and the taking of hostages.

War today can break out in a matter of minutes, not necessarily after the breakdown of days of negotiation. We just don’t have what we would need to repel any attack.

Members of the Special Operations Task Group prepare for a patrol in southern Afghanistan. in 2007. Today, Australia would not have what it would need to repel any attack.

We don’t have fuel reserves (handily, they’re held in the US), we don’t have ammunition, and we don’t have the sort of agile weaponry that has prevented the Russian dictator conquering Ukraine as that war enters its third year.

Psychologically, no one in the Defence establishment is addressing the question of what is necessary to meet the challenge of an unpredicted outbreak of war. The boffins are still questioning what sort of defence we need but, realistically, China’s program in the Pacific means that the enemy is no longer a long way from our shores.

Fortunately, we live on a huge continent and that alone should give any enemy pause because it would be innately difficult to conquer. Our size would make it hard to blockade every port, but then our air and sea lanes have choke points that could make it easier to harry ships and planes far from our shores.

“This is a weak government, and when you signal weakness from the political leadership, Diggers, our sailors and our airmen take notice,” shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie told the ABC last week. “What’s fundamentally missing from this government is a message of service, opportunity and of aspiration.

“If you go back to 1986, Bob Hawke got in a helicopter and made an ad, which was put on TV, recruiting for Ready Reserve. He highlighted the strategic circumstances, and he made the call to the young to step up.

“We’re not seeing that from Anthony Albanese or Richard Marles.”

We have to build our capabilities now, not rely on receiving US nuclear submarines down the track. Our defence budget is $52.5bn – just over 2 per cent of GDP (more than most of the NATO members that former US president Donald Trump rightly criticised). But there is a lack of transparency and a history of waste, cost overruns on local builds and disappointing purchases.

The lesson is clear and has been through every conflict: operational considerations must override political obsessions.