God only knows what universe Labor is living in. It sure isn’t this one:
Anthony Albanese has labelled his government’s support for AUKUS “an act of clear-eyed pragmatism” as he stepped in to stare down dissent from left-wing unions and rank-and-file members who were labelled as “appeasers” by a senior member of their own faction.
AUKUS faced opposition from left-aligned unions – the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, the Electrical Trades Union, and the Maritime Union of Australia – as well as rank-and-file members. They argued against the cost and the adoption of nuclear technology, and claimed it would sacrifice Australia’sovereignty to the US and heighten the risk of war with China.
What boloney this debate is. It is all about seeing the world as various Labor faction would like it to be, not the way it is.
AUKUS is idiotic in the hands of Albo because he is simultaneously appeasing his way towards deeper economic engagement with China.
All this means is that when AUKUS connections with the US are triggered in conflict, the cost to Australia will be a far greater economic shock at the worst possible moment.
We will have put ourselves in the spectacularly stupid position of using our nuclear subs to blockade our trade routes.
AUKUS is not an offset to deeper economic relations with China; it contradicts them. It’s like using an insurance policy on your house to light bonfires in your lounge room.
If China is such a threat that AUKUS is necessary then the economy should also be de-risked vis China. Which is what everybody else is doing:
Aside from the fact that the best way to avoid having ever used AUKUS in anger is to make it plain to China that the economic costs of trade and financial blockades will destroy it even if it does take Taiwan.
In short, a number-crunching Albo has turned his habit of backroom comprises into self-defeating strategic idiocy.
Meanwhile, Labor’s peaceniks don’t even understand the geopolitical landscape they are operating in.
AUKUS does not detract from sovereignty. It exposes the illusion of it. There was only ever a liberal democracy because the US enforced the system.
Replace it with a Chinese imperium, and you will become a China mini-me. Perhaps the Labor left is filled with would-be Stalins.
In better news, our local threats are much reduced today by more US technological generosity:
The Albanese government has announced a $1.7bn spend on hi-tech missiles which the defence minister, Richard Marles, said are needed “to hold our adversaries further from our shores and keep Australians safe”.
Australia will become just the third nation after the US and the UK to have access to Tomahawk cruise missiles, with $1.3bn being spent on 200 of the long range missiles to boost the capability of the three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers.
This takes care of any threat of expanded Chinese bases in the Solomons. A few well-placed Tomahawks and they’ll be Swiss cheese.
