Albanese, Marles all talk in face of rising Chinese aggression
The Australian government’s China policy is not working; it is failing to restrain dangerous behaviour and limit the risk to our Defence Force.
The Australian government’s China policy is not working; it is failing to restrain dangerous behaviour and limit the risk to our Defence Force.
General Campbell’s six-year reign was marked by a period of drift and inaction, when Australia needed strength and decisiveness.
The Albanese government has appointed a former defence force chief as Special Adviser on Israel’s response to the Israel Defence Forces strikes that killed seven aid workers in Gaza. It’s a dangerous precedent.
When things get real with signed contracts, actual deliveries and new recruits to the Navy then we might have something to genuinely applaud.
We must acknowledge events in the Middle East affect us here at home and that freedom of navigation is a global good. It’s not too late for the Albanese government to make the right choice.
Australia’s Defence is failing and appears to have no plans, aside from doing more of what it’s already doing, with an expanding hierarchy making everything more opaque and confusing.
The PM’s recent foreign visits exposed jarring differences in rhetoric and nasty gaps in consistency.
Anthony Albanese’s visit to America had mixed results, which is disturbing given military co-operation is the core of the Australia-US alliance and key to collective security in the Indo Pacific.
The US is going to start questioning why it should fast track its own work to provide Australia with nuclear submarines when its Australian partner seems to lack the seriousness of purpose to deliver a core part of the bargain.
The Albanese government should learn from the Coalition’s past mistakes in Defence and not repeat them. Our times demand fast delivery of tangible things.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/michael-shoebridge/page/2