Brian Toohey

Brian Toohey is author of Secret: The Making of Australia’s Security State.

Brian's recent articles

Protracted timeline shows the folly of Australia's nuclear submarine deal

Protracted timeline shows the folly of Australia's nuclear submarine deal

Buying ludicrously expensive nuclear submarines upsets our neighbours, inflates the defence spending budget, unbalances our military forces and does nothing to address the bigger security threat of global warming and species extinction.

Economists' proposals show responsible welfare reform is possible

Economists' proposals show responsible welfare reform is possible

The next election is likely to continue the grim outlook for welfare beneficiaries regardless of whether the Coalition or Labor wins. A healthy democracy should do a lot better than this. There is no shortage of good ideas.

Morrison's QUAD ally with shared values; India's despot, Modi

Morrison's QUAD ally with shared values; India's despot, Modi

Scott Morrison loves to praise India as a wonderful democracy. The reality is that India under Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party is a horror story.

On the bandwagon: Australian media helps government peddle disinformation

On the bandwagon: Australian media helps government peddle disinformation

There has, quite rightly, been criticism in the mainstream media of authoritarian states and their use of disinformation campaigns and cyber attacks. However, the US and its democratic allies decades ago pioneered the use of disinformation in their huge propaganda campaigns. China is just a beginner.

Group of Eight universities concede to ASIO, restrict vital research engagement with China

Group of Eight universities concede to ASIO, restrict vital research engagement with China

China is provoking every country in its region. But that is no reason to cut off all contact, including scientific engagement, especially if we want to avoid war. Brian Toohey investigates another sphere in which academic freedom is being restricted by government.

Exporting hydrogen the last throw of the dice for brown coal

Exporting hydrogen the last throw of the dice for brown coal

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylors backing for the Victorian-based hydrogen export plan, which he described as a significant project, defies financial credibility.

Australias plans for a $2 billion airstrip in the Antarctic is environmental vandalism

While Australia criticises other countries for their supposed expansionist policies, Australia is the most brazen of any country in asserting ownership of territory that doesnt belong to it. And while Australia claims to be staunchly committed to the environmental protection of the Antarctic, its actions belie such a claim, with its proposal to build a $2 billion concrete aerodrome at its Davis base.

Mind-boggling waste revealed in the record rise in weapons spending (MWM Nov 30, 2020)

Australian governments and their defence leaders, with help from lobbyists, choose immensely complex, overpriced and overmanned weaponry. Wasteful spending has to end, writesBrian Toohey.

One Good Thing: Trump first president since Carter not to drag America into foreign wars

The seeds of civil war may be growing but one good thing to come out of Donald Trumps four years in power is that he has not sent America into war overseas, joining the Democrats Jimmy Carter as the only other president since 1950 to show such restraint.Brian Tooheyreports.

Our extended states most powerful mandarin (SMH Oct 30, 2020)

Michael Pezzullo is by far the most powerful public servant in Australia. He created and runs the ever-expanding Home Affairs Department, he oversees a ceaseless avalanche of draconian new laws and he gives public speeches about what he sees as the global duality of good and evil.

Australian submarines operating in the South China Sea is a very provocative and very bad idea.

In responding to my post (19 October) about the Morrison governments plan to spend at least $90 billion on large submarines, Jon Stanfords post (21 October ) argues that we should do what the Commander of the US Submarine Force wants with our submarines.

In for a penny, in for a pound: $90 billion for an obsolete submarine fleet

So much for Australian sovereignty. We are locked out of repairing key US components of our subs computer systems, and the Coalition has committed our submarine fleet to the extraordinarily dangerous role of helping the US conduct surveillance in the South China Sea.

Problems with new F-35 fighter planes shouldn't fly under the radar (Canberra Times Sep 1, 2020)

Defence gives an average price of less than $126 million for Australia's 72 F-35s when fully delivered. But the Australian Strategy Policy Institute estimates the sustainment costs to be triple those of the F-18 fighters it replaces.

ASIO and AFP have questions to answer

ASIO and the AFP have questions to answer in the wake of reported raids on the homes and offices of Chinese journalists and a Labor backbencher.

Australia's national security laws leave us on a similar path to Hong Kong

Hong Kongs new national security laws are attracting well-deserved condemnation. Its a pity that there hasnt been greater recognition that Australias own national security laws share some common features with those in Hong Kong.

Folly of following the Five Eyes Anglo-Saxon relic

The main countries comprising this electronic espionage group have made an abysmal hash of responding to the economic and health impacts of Covid-19. Yet the Australian government has chosen them to develop a strategic economic response to the Covid 19 crisis.

BRIAN TOOHEY. Reports of China spies and takeover plots are fanciful (SMH 5.12.2019)

Wildly exaggerated intelligence warnings about communist influence are not new in Australia. A US naval intelligence officer who was posted as an attache to the American embassy in the late 1940s, Stephen Jurika, reported back to Washington that communism was rife in the highest governing circles in Australia.

BRIAN TOOHEY. The man who thought he owned a Prime Minister

This is the gravest risk to the nations security there has ever been.Sir Arthur Tange, 6 November 19751. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, the son of a former solicitor-general, was initially attracted to the notion that Arthur Tange was a dedicated public servant. He later discovered that this public servant presumed he was entitled to withhold crucial information from prime ministers.

BRIAN TOOHEY Chained to the chariot wheels of the Pentagon

The British monarchy has no say in Australian government decisions. It's a different story with the head of the American Republic. A US president presides over a military-industrial-intelligence complex with a huge say in whether Australian governments go to war, buy particular weapons, host US-run military and intelligence bases and ban trade with certain countries. The upshot is that Australia has now surrendered much of its sovereignty to the US.

Is Pine Gap for Arms Control or the US fighting machine?

Labor governments surrendered Australian sovereignty in other ways by agreeing in 2008 to renew the lease on North West Cape without any conditions on how US nuclear attack submarines could use the base[i]. This could include undermining Chinas ability to deter a nuclear war.[ii] Labor subsequently agreed to let the US install long-range ground sensors at NWC to help conduct space warfare against Russia and China in violation of Australia's support for a treaty outlawing the militarisation of space.[iii] The public were not told about the significance of these developments, nor about similar changes at the Pine Gap satellite base...

BRIAN TOOHEY. Teresa May's rush to judgment on nerve agents

The British Prime Minister Teresa May failed to produce any evidence that the Russian state used a nerve agent called Novichok before she announced measures to punish the Kremlin. At least Tony Blair famously produced a dodgy dossier claiming Saddam Hussein possessed a deadly arsenal of chemical and biological weapons. The Bush White House peddled similar nonsense masquerading as intelligence. Politicians and journalists around the world promptly accepted this rubbish as justification for the disastrous invasion of Iraq 2003. There is a risk a new rush to judgement could now be occurring.

BRIAN TOOHEY. ABC kowtow to government and ASIO on cabinet papers was gutless.

The ABCs treatment of what it calls one of the biggest national security breaches in Australian history is a disgrace. It put the identity of its source at risk, but reported very little from the documents, preferring to talk at length about how it got them and handed them over to the government.

BRIAN TOOHEY. So just who is a Chinese agent?

Chinese attempts to influence Australian policy havent stopped Malcolm Turnbulls government making increasingly tough criticisms of the nations largest trading partner. Despite Chinas waning policy influence, the government is introducing onorous espionage and foreign interference legislation to counter the problem. If this stops foreign countries from covertly influencing Australian policy, thats fine. But the legislation could potentially curtail public discussion and free speech, neither of which is assisted by some commentators and unnamed intelligence sources who brand just about anyone with any contact with China as an agent of influence.

BRIAN TOOHEY. The US doesn't need Asia

The US doesnt need to be the dominant power in Asia to maintain its own national security. No amount of wishful thinking can negate this key insight from Hugh White, a leading professor of strategic studies, about the governments latest foreign policy White Paper.

BRIAN TOOHEY. Could our new subs sink our new frigates?

Could Australias big new $70 billion submarines sink its big new $35 billion frigates? Could the frigates sink the subs? The questions are worth answering before we spend these huge sums on potentially vulnerable frigates and subs. The subs cost, in particular, is unnecessarily high due to the political decision to design and build bespoke subs in Australia.

BRIAN TOOHEY. PM walks with energy dinosaurs

The person known as Malcolm Turnbull who took over as Prime Minister is gone. Thats the one who declared immediately after getting the job that Australians have a wonderfully exciting future provided they recognise change is our friend, if we are agile and smart enough to take advantage of it.

BRIAN TOOHEY. Building submarines in SA simply sinks Australian dollars

Despite claims to the contrary by the defence industry minister Christopher Pyne, this sector is not driving growth in the economy or jobs. A defence economics specialist Mark Thompson has debunked these claims in a careful analysis just released by Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Thompson concludes, If we are going to use defence spending to grow the economy, we should get the most out of it, and that might mean importing more equipment to maximise access to global supply chains.

BRIAN TOOHEY. Prevention better than cure when it comes to terror

We shouldn't trash our own values to support harsh anti-terrorism policies that dont guarantee more security. There is a wealth of evidence about what does and what does not help to protect us from terrorism, and we're doing too much of what doesn't work.

BRIAN TOOHEY. How to repair neo-liberalism

The policy debate needs fresh ideas to fill the gap left by the lack of popular and political support for the neo-liberal economic agenda. Paul Keating, who championed that agenda, recently said neo-liberal economics has run into a dead end and had no answer to the contemporary malaise.

BRIAN TOOHEY. New Series. We can say 'no' to the Americans.

There is nothing wrong with pursuing Australia's commercial interests and avoiding pointless military gestures demanded by the US.

BRIAN TOOHEY. The quality of intelligence advice.

A former top US intelligence official David Gompert has issued a sober warning to those who want to lock Australia into any future war with China. Speaking on Monday, Gompert said a war between the US and China could be so ruinous for both countries and the world that it might seem unthinkable, yet its not. He said, China and the US are at loggerheads over several regional disputes that could lead to military confrontation . . . If a crisis overheated, both have an incentive to strike enemy forces before being struck by them. Gompert, whom President Obama appointed...

Brian Toohey. The $50 b. submarine purchase.

Jon Stanford's three-part series on the Turnbull governments determination to spend $50 billion on big new submarines is a welcome contribution to understanding what's at stake at a time of cuts elsewhere. The decision risks repeating the Hawke government's disastrous mistake of rejecting a proven design in favour of the bespoke Collins class subs. Stanfords depiction of the folly of trying to keep the decrepit Collins going until newly designed subs are ready is compelling. Contrary to the 2016 White Papers claim, there is no way Australia will have superior subs when it will still operate some of the Collins...

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