Steadfast, balanced view as PM lays down law

Morrison is explicit – the ‘wake-up’ call sweeping Europe must extend to the Indo-Pacific. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison has doubled down on his view of the global crisis – get real about the autocrats in Moscow and Beijing.

He predicts a “bloody and protracted conflict” in Ukraine. He warns China faces “a moment of choice” and seems to be aligning, so far, with Russia’s aggression.

This speech was a resolute and balanced effort to elevate national security in the election context. Its focus was strategy, not politics. It was realistic and steadfast.

There was no election-driven change in Australia’s national ­direction because that wasn’t necessary – Morrison just drove harder on the policies and national resilience themes that he has been expounding for the past three years.

Morrison’s purpose is to use the Ukraine crisis to highlight the growing danger from autocratic states, Australia’s role as a global leader in defying China’s economic coercion, and his government’s prescience in picking the epic disruption in the world order.

The PM was emphatic that Australia’s decision on its nuclear-powered submarine type would be made after the election.

That’s smart and it’s a relief. Any premature announcement driven by electoral needs would have strained credibility.

Morrison said the decision wouldn’t be done in an election frame. The different messaging between Morrison and ­Defence Minister Peter Dutton is ­apparent.

Morrison’s announcement of a submarine base on the east coast to support the future nuclear-powered submarines is a logical step under review for some time.

Admitting it will be an “enormous undertaking”, Morrison identified three potential sites – Brisbane, Newcastle and Port Kembla – but it is obvious, again, all substantial decisions will be in the years post-election.

The PM was smart and restrained in separating the issues of Taiwan and Ukraine. Rejecting any “parallels” between them, Morrison said “these situations were entirely different” – a statement of geopolitical reality lost in much commentary.

He said he didn’t want to “concern” or “alert” the public into thinking what happened in Ukraine might lead to a follow-on in our region. That’s sensible.

It means Morrison’s focus on China falls exactly where it should: its inability to call out Russia’s invasion; its trade concessions to Russia; and its abject hypocrisy as a nation purporting to be a responsible leader, backing national sovereignty for decades but now violating every norm of international law and excusing Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked acts of violence.

Morrison was explicit – the “wake-up” call sweeping Europe must extend to the Indo-Pacific.

He fingered Chinese ­President Xi Jinping by saying Putin had long planned this invasion and “told China he was going to do it, by the reports that we see”.

If this proves to be true, China becomes far more culpable.

Morrison’s theme on election eve is that national security must extend more into our “way of life” because the world is “more ­fragile, more contested and ­arguably even more fragmented than at any time since World War II”.

He said his government was the “proven choice” when it came to national security.

Labor, by constantly falling in behind the government, seems to offer credence for this view.