Cynical politics delays Australia’s announcement of fresh support for Ukraine
Announcement of Australia’s fresh support package for Ukraine is on hold so Anthony Albanese has something to announce at the NATO summit in Lithuania next month.
There’s nothing stopping Anthony Albanese announcing a fresh package of support for Ukraine today. It could have been done months ago.
Instead, further support has been put on hold so the PM has something to announce when he attends the NATO summit in Lithuania next month.
When he visited Ukraine last year, Albanese vowed to stand by Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.
Australia has supplied some $650m in military and non-military support to Ukraine so far. It’s not an insignificant amount.
But Ukraine is in a war of attrition against an oppressive, well-armed regime, led by a brutal dictator.
As Anthony Albanese himself has said, Ukraine is fighting “for humanity and freedom”.
Delaying fresh support so he has an “announceable” at the NATO conference is pretty cynical politics.
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov let the cat out the bag that more Australian assistance was coming after talks with Richard Marles at Singapore’s Shangri-La dialogue.
It was an attempt to apply moral pressure on Australia to lock in the package.
The move came after an unedifying display during senate estimates this week when Defence officials refused to say how many of Australia’s promised 90 Bushmaster protected vehicles had actually arrived in Ukraine.
Defence has also been the key blocker of Ukrainian requests for up to 90 Hawkei tactical vehicles, which Kyiv wants to use as mobile air-defence platforms.
It blames a problem with the Hawkeis’ anti-lock braking system, which doesn’t affect their off-road performance, and says it can’t sustain the vehicles in Europe.
But the Ukrainians don’t care about the braking issue, and the vehicles’ manufacturer Thales Australia says it’ll take care of sustainment.
Asked whether the ADF would deploy its 1000-odd Hawkeis if Australia itself was invaded, the Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell was unequivocal.
“Australia would do everything it could, wouldn’t it? And any other country would.”
That’s the point. As a committed partner to Ukraine, Australia should be doing everything it can for the country, as soon as it possibly can.
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