Satellite cancellation shows Labor’s priorities are wrong

For the sake of protecting Australians, the Albanese government must rethink its decision to cancel the planned $7bn military-grade satellite communications system it approved only 18 months ago. In an age when protection against cyber and electronic warfare attacks from hostile powers must be a priority of national security, cancellation ultimately could cost Australians dearly in terms of quality of life and economically. The experience of July 19 when a global IT outage (not an attack) took out the operations of major commercial operators including banks, supermarkets, airlines, petrol stations and media companies and forced many workplaces to a standstill would be a mild taste of the havoc that would be wreaked in the event of a serious attack.

The decision shows the government has its priorities wrong. If needs be, it should postpone or reduce Anthony Albanese’s populist pre-election sweetener to wipe 20 per cent of student debt. About $16bn in student debt is expected to be cut from all student loan accounts that exist as of June next year. That giveaway is a low priority. The Higher Education Contributions Scheme pioneered by the Hawke government in 1989 recognised correctly that university students should make a reasonable contribution to their education. Scrapping the giveaway would more than cover the nation’s biggest space project, for which US defence giant Lockheed Martin was selected last year to deliver a sovereign system of three to five satellites.

The decision is a serious blow to Australia’s credibility with the US and other strategic partners, writes Ben Packham, who revealed the cancellation on Monday. It will leave the Australian Defence Force begging the Pentagon for bandwidth or having to rely on commercial options in a potential war with China. The $7bn system was to have been the connective tissue linking all of the ADF’s capabilities, from F-35s and sub-hunting P-8 aircraft to air warfare destroyers, missile targeting and special forces units.

While the government loves to talk up its strategic ambitions, which the increasingly dangerous era demands, its rhetoric is way out of kilter with its defence budget. The long-term dangers of skimping on quality defences, of which both political sides are guilty, has been underlined by the saga of the ageing, rusting Collins-class submarines. Only one of the six in the fleet is currently operational, Packham revealed on Saturday. The AUKUS program to buy and build nuclear-powered submarines is vital but it should have been started years earlier.

Labor scrapping the satellites takes sovereign risk to a new level. It also will undermine Australia’s defence credibility, just as the US and Britain were relying on Australia to boost Indo-Pacific surveillance. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will look on with interest.

In April, Chris Uhlmann reported that a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, Volt Typhoon, was targeting Australia’s critical infrastructure and might have accessed some systems after infiltrating essential services in the US. There, FBI director Christopher Wray warned the vast operation was targeting water treatment plants, the electrical grid, oil and natural gas pipelines and transport systems. As Uhlmann wrote: “If Australia does find itself in conflict with China, the first sign may be when the lights go out and the dams empty.” The seriousness of the threat was acknowledged by ASIO director-general Mike Burgess, who said he was aware of one nation-state attempting to scan critical infrastructure in Australia.

The fact the Albanese government knows the risks makes its latest decision unconscionable. It needs to scrap the handouts and get serious about defence.