Militarism has become the norm. We now even have an Army Lieutenant General heading the vaccine roll out
Jun 24, 2021
What a reflection this is on the standing of the Australian Public Service and the Morrison Governments lack of interest in a robust and well functioning civil society. We invariably turn to the military.
The Morrison government passed the buck to the states for Covid quarantine despite the fact that quarantine is a clear Commonwealth responsibility and has been so since Federation. With their skill and experience in delivering services, the States did well in quarantine despite the Commonwealth government’s abdication of responsibility and unwillingness to establish stand-alone and remote quarantine facilities.
Concerned that the states were getting the political kudos for handling quarantine , the Morrison Government determined that it was going to lead the way in the rollout of vaccines. But we know now that the rollout has been seriously bungled. So the Government appointed Lt.Gen John Frewen to try to retrieve the vaccine rollout confusion.
Instead of facing up to the debasing of the Australian Public Service through out sourcing and under funding, the government lets the APS languish and then turns to the military. As Professor Seebeck of the ANU put it recently ‘It’s worrying when the government, under pressure,almost reflexively reaches for a military officer to help resolve messy, complex and conflicted policy matters-matters that are inherently political in nature’
Public occasions are invariably backgrounded by numerous flags with military uniforms on display.
Our poorly funded fire fighters now have to call on the military.
We have a government boasting that it has plans for Australia to become one of the top 10 worlds arms suppliers. This is at the same time as we have announced dramatic cuts in our humanitarian aid program that saves lives. We are to export more military equipment to kill and maim. Our allies like the Saudis and the UAE welcome our support as they inflict terrible suffering on the people of Yemen. Even a retired Australian general served the UAE military.
When we arrive at our airports we see our Australian Border Force decked out in military-style black uniforms. They intentionally look part of the Australian Defence Force instead of Customs and Immigration officers. There is clearly a message being conveyed. We need to act more like the military. The Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs beats the drums for war over Taiwan.
The government runs many scare campaigns not just about the China threat but in recent years about ‘illegal’ asylum seekers and terrorists. The language is clear, we are at war with asylum seekers in their rickety boats. Scott Morrison described Operation Sovereign Borders run by the Navy as a ‘military-led border security operation’. He adds that the battle against people-smugglers ‘is being fought using the full arsenal of measures’. Peter Dutton tells us that a military look-alike called Border Force is more important than ever.
Many of us had hoped that at last, we were putting to an end the appointment of the Australian military as vice-regal representatives in Australia. But we are back-tracking on that with the two latest Governors General being army generals. The military is the norm.
Our aid programs have been progressively militarised. AIDWATCH has reported that our ‘military forces manipulate humanitarian aid in order to achieve tactical and political objectives. While the military can play an important role in the immediate aftermath of a humanitarian crisis, researchers have found that militarised aid is not effective and can cause harm to local communities and aid workers’.
The militarisation of Australia and our conditioning was most evident in the extravagant celebration of the Centenary of the Gallipoli invasion and WWI. The Australian War Memorial orchestrated a well-funded campaign across the country, including schools, to depict WWI as the starting point of our history, our coming of age. Our media loved it. The AWM celebrates war by accepting generous funding from arms suppliers, the ‘agents of death’ as Pope Francis calls them. It is grotesque that the AWM accepts money and sponsorship from arms suppliers. The agents of death are well and truly within the citadel. They even fund the Invictus Games, the same people that produce the weapons to maim and kill. Don’t we care?
And then the government agrees, with the complicity of the ALP to fund another $500 m for the ego trip of a former Director of the AWM. There was widespread civil opposition to this $500 m aggrandisement of the AWM but that was all pushed aside. The military view won out.
Our foreign policy has now become subjected to our military dependence on the US. We are at the beck and call of the US military, regardless of our own interests. With interoperability of equipment and personnel we are locked into the US war machine. We are dragooned time and time again into US military disasters– Vietnam, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. We have ceded our sovereignty to the US government and its controlling military elites.
There is great danger that the militarisation of Australian history and our ready acceptance of the military as the accepted norm will lead us to more and more tragedy. We used to believe that committing our country to war was the most serious thing that any government could ever do. That is no more. We go to war without even the Australian parliament being consulted. And the ALP concurs.
Henry Reynolds in this blog ‘Militarism marches on’, warned us ‘The threshold Australian governments need to cross in order to send forces overseas is perilously low. Because there has never been an assessment of why Australia has been so often involved in war, young people must get the impression that war is a natural and inescapable part of national life. It is what we do and we are good at it. We ‘punch above our weight’. War is treated as though it provides the venue and the occasion for Australian heroism and martial virtuosity. While there is much talk of dying, or more commonly of sacrifice, there is little mention of killing and never any assessment of the carnage visited on distant countries in our name.’
Blink and we miss another military festival in Australia. Are there so few civic achievements to be proud of?
Militarism is becoming more and more pervasive. We have been sleep-walking in dangerous territory, ever since the Frontier Wars which we try and hide from view.
We avoid the truth about our military today by telling ourselves that war crimes are due to a few bad apples. Military commanders tell us they did not know about war crimes in Afghanistan. But why did they not know? We need a Royal Commission to find out. Instead our media together with the military cooperate to run the issue into the ground and those responsible, including the politicians avoid responsibility for their crimes, as in Iraq.
Militarisation has become an increasingly dangerous norm. We need a civil revival.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
Contributions to Pearls and Irritations
Your contribution will fund quality independent comment and analysis in Pearls and Irritations
Contribute
