NT let down by increased Defence employees in Australia

Like in 1942, we appear to have left the Defence of our northern front to the United States, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM.

EMPEROR penguins can be scary beasts.

If provoked or startled, they’ve been known to attack humans, pecking with their beaks and flapping with their wings.

This was clearly front of mind when the Federal Government decided it would add 18,500 Defence employees to its ranks by 2040.

This was sold as a great announcement for the Northern Territory. Almost 1000 of those employees would be based in the Top End.

But when you dig into the detail, you can see we’ve been dudded.

The Territory’s contingent of this new Defence personnel falls well behind most other states and territories.

New South Wales will receive 2768 of these employees, Queensland 1875 and Western Australia 1414.

Even South Australia, with 1088 will receive 100 more than the NT, proving the Government’s fear of an Antarctic penguin invasion may be real.

But perhaps the most startling aspect of this announcement was that 2702 of these new employees would be based in the ACT.

Note also the Government’s language about “employees”, rather than “troops”.

It’s clear this commitment will see a bigger increase in public servants in Canberra than frontline troops in Darwin.

The Federal Government appears to be struggling to learn the lessons of history.

When Bombing of Darwin veteran Brian Winspear returned to the Top End last month for the 80th anniversary commemorations of that shocking event, he remarked on Mix FM that the Government of the day had been left with egg on its face due its failure to prepare for the Japanese attack.

Yet here we are, eight decades on, appearing to make the same mistake.

In a paper written in April 2019, Dr John Coyne from the Australian Strategic Police Institute detailed the gradual withdrawal of troops from the Top End over the previous decade.

“The unchanged environmental challenges of wet seasons have become, over recent years, a justification to move whole units and capabilities — such as the tanks of the 1st Armoured Regiment — south to Adelaide,” he wrote.

“The 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, along with supporting subunits from the 8th/12th Regiment, 1st Combat Engineer Regiment and 1st Combat Service Support Battalion, has moved to RAAF Base Edinburgh, just outside Adelaide.

“These changes seem incongruous at a time when the US is continuing to implement its force posture initiatives in northern Australia.”

Like 1942, we appear to have left the Defence of our northern front to the United States.

Dr John Coyne is the head of strategic police and law enforcement programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gary Ramage

According to Dr Coyne, the fact the US is building its own military infrastructure in the Top End, such as the $200 million fuel storage facility, is a “vote of no-confidence in Australia”.

As Greg Sheridan wrote in The Australian this week, it’s remarkable that a Coalition Government has opened itself up to attacks from Labor on issues of national security.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of being more focused on the announcement than the delivery.

This latest “announcement” appears to prove his point.

The increase in Defence personnel would have been the perfect opportunity to address the imbalance Coyne has identified.

But there’s only one Federal seat up for grabs in Darwin.

And that seat is becoming a Labor stronghold – on the back of a local MP who is a former member of the Australian Defence Force.

Labor’s challenge will be what it does if it wins office.

Will it restructure our Defence force to face the region of most significant threat?

Or will decisions continue to be determined by the votes of those in marginal seats.

Right now the Morrison Government is continuing to insist it will build its new nuclear submarine fleet in Adelaide – a decision Sheridan says will add many billions of dollars and many years of delay.

We must be worried about those penguins.