That Labor MP Josh Wilson shattered the remarkable unity the Albanese government has had up until now by publicly opposing the AUKUS agreement demonstrates the job ahead of the government to socialise its younger members, the ALP activist base and the whole millennial generation on national security.
Wilson’s strange public rebellion, before he can possibly be across the detail of everything AUKUS involves, was the government’s first outbreak of disunity. If it’s a one-off, it’s unimportant. If it’s a trend, it’s the worst news Labor could have.
Albanese has bipartisanship on subs sewn up. The Liberals under Peter Dutton deserve praise for supporting the government on nuclear subs. But in truth, what else could they do?
Longer term, this policy will be challenged on the left, within the ALP, and outside it among activists and Greens. Although the electorate almost always rewards a Labor government that stands up to the left, in time this opposition could become formidable. Albanese needs a strategy for handling it.
The last Labor government to move so decisively on national security, indeed the last government to order a submarine that actually got built, was Bob Hawke’s in the 1980s. Hawke inherited a Labor Party reeling with the anti-Americanism and national security dysfunction of the chaotic Whitlam years, and turned it into a modern social democratic party, a natural party of government that could be trusted by the whole electorate with defence, the US alliance, foreign affairs, every aspect of national security. One of the great gifts Hawke gave the nation was to normalise national security for Labor, to socialise a generation of Labor politicians and activists, and the centre left generally, into the importance of the US alliance, the Australian Defence Force and having credible security agencies.
A lot of this was contested in Hawke’s time. Kim Beazley renegotiated the agreement around Pine Gap, turning it from a US communications base into a joint facility. The Hawke government enlisted not only senior ministers but credible trade union leaders and outside experts to argue the case for Pine Gap, and similar issues, in front of union, Labor and community audiences all over Australia.
Albanese Labor has a similar task to embed this new AUKUS approach deep into Labor and activist circles. That the government has a wide range of senior ministers answering parliamentary questions on AUKUS is a good early sign. This is a military and strategic move, but one with huge economic dimensions. It’s truly a whole-of-government, nation-building project. The moral and political authority of figures on the left such as Penny Wong is important to sustain this project.
Defence Minister Richard Marles, who has generally been a very effective advocate of the subs, is nonetheless narrowing the strategic justification a bit too much when he talks predominantly of protecting sea lanes and trade routes. Obviously we can’t do that on our own, and obviously the government wants to mention China as little as possible. But the subs also directly defend Australia and strengthen deterrence. There’s a big advocacy task ahead.
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