Defence and Security
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What do we want? War! When do we want it? Continually!
Post 9/11 the US embarked on a series of wars to ‘make the world safe’ and more importantly settle old and new scores. Continue reading »
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China: The challenge of complexity
All of us here can probably agree that we are currently living in a time of greater strategic uncertainty and challenge than at any time since the end of World War II, and certainly since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s. China is seen as being at the epicentre of this. Continue reading »
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Joint retreat: AUKUS nations back peddling on climate
Leaders of the AUKUS nations, all once pronouncing ambition on addressing the climate crisis and lording the mantle of global leadership, are now each in turn forgoing their international commitments, carving out excuses and worse. Continue reading »
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The 10 rules of the rules based International order (RBIO)
Breaking news: Pentagon releases the ten rules of the Rules Based International Order (RBIO) as seen by the United States of America. Continue reading »
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Evil, scary China refuses to passively let us encircle it: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
It’s not the big, glaring, obvious lies that get you. The New York Times is the world’s most destructive propaganda outlet not because it publishes giant ham-fisted whoppers, but because it appears trustworthy. Its reporting looks authoritative. Children are taught in school that it’s what credible news media looks like. This lets the well-crafted propaganda Continue reading »
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Big brave Western proxy warriors keep whining that Ukrainian troops are cowards
Amid continuous news that the Ukrainian counteroffensive which began in June is not going as hoped, The New York Times has published an article titled “Troop Deaths and Injuries in Ukraine War Near 500,000, U.S. Officials Say.” Continue reading »
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Pat Conroy and the sexuality underpinning AUKUS
The sexual connotation of support for AUKUS should be obvious. An apparent fascination with phallic symbols as large as nuclear submarines, plus language describing how to dominate and penetrate enemies shows notions of security which reflect a top down, masculine interpretation of power. Continue reading »
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ABC shamelessly spruiks ‘China Threat’ stories on morning of ALP National Conference AUKUS debate
The morning of the ALP National Conference on 18 August, ABC online news led with two ‘Bad China’ stories. One about whether China is building an airstrip on a contested island, the other likely to cause great discomfort and anxiety to Australians because it showed the level of China’s spying on Australia via hundreds of Continue reading »
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Marles coughs up the sad truth about AUKUS
Richard Marles said the quiet bit out loud ahead of the ALP conference AUKUS debate while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese seems to have been, er, “economical with the truth”. Continue reading »
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Tomahawk missiles over Indonesia? No worries, they’re only passing by
In the early 1960s, the then USSR started building missile sites in Cuba, near enough to Florida for endurance swimmers. This almost led to the Cold War turning flaming hot. Now Australia is to buy more than 200 US missiles and stage them close to Indonesia. Continue reading »
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The Big 4, government procurement and the rivers of gold
Australian governments are now amongst the biggest users of external consultants on the planet. Continue reading »
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Why are government officials manufacturing false espionage threats?
Government ministers and senior officials are conditioning Australians to become frightened, very frightened. Continue reading »
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Time to grow up? Australia is becoming a militarised US outpost
I hesitate to stray into the florid world of military strategists, senior public servants, cabinet ministers and assorted think tanks, but what on earth is going on with Australia’s so-called defence policy? The Albo government seems hellbent on turning Australia into a militarised outpost of the US whose ‘pivot’ to the Asia-Pacific region has led Continue reading »
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Campbell’s AUKUS appointment did not meet standards of public service
There are solid grounds for suspecting that the appointment of Ms Kathryn Campbell, of Robodebt notoriety, to the Department of Defence’s AUKUS division did not meet the normal standards required for other appointments in the public service. Those responsible for the appointment of Ms Campbell and the suspension of her salary have got little to Continue reading »
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Self-destructive stupidity, New Zealand style
‘Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad’ What a pity it is that we no longer believe in capricious gods because that would offer a good explanation for the otherwise quite perplexing habit of governments, with intelligent and informed people theoretically at their disposal, to embrace policies which are manifestly an example of Continue reading »
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Australia’s biggest AUKUS risk? America, our dangerous ally
The biggest enemy of AUKUS is not the resistance of ALP branches and unions but its own over-engineered grandiosity, its naive ambition. Continue reading »
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AUKUS gets embedded but no clear rationale
Labor has its political fix on national security. But what has been deferred once more is a fully developed explanation of the policy in real defence and strategic terms. Continue reading »
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The AUKUS folly: Albanese and the US presidential election
There never was a chance of overturning the AUKUS folly at the Labor conference. As unpalatable as it might be, the only possibility of extracting Australia from America’s war planning now lies in the bizarre milieu of American politics. And it’s not forlorn. Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese is paralysed and failing to grasp the moment
A good many people who worked hard for a Labor government are now astonished at its lack of ambition. More nagging for those who have dreamed of Labor in action has been the complete refusal to countenance any shift in national security policy, in human rights law, in planning aggression against China, and in a Continue reading »
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The edifice of the consultancy-military-industrial complex is crumbling
The consultancy-military-industrial complex continues to reveal its sinister nature as serious questions are raised over conflicts of interest in the tender process for KPMG’s $46 million REDSPICE contract with the Australian Signals Directorate. Continue reading »
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Japan’s dangerous demonisation of North Korea
Japan is a member of the Quad – the grouping that claims it is working for a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. But in its relations with North Korea, Tokyo is not working for anything free, open, prosperous and inclusive. Continue reading »
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New Zealand risks perilous pivot
Wellington’s shift in defence policy abandons long-held neutrality, follows US’ anti-China stance. Continue reading »
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Albanese and the ALP, running scared
Hard core supporters of Australia’s alliance with America – in Australia, the USA, and in the UK – were no doubt thrilled by Anthony Albanese’s full-throated defence of the AUKUS deal at the ALP’s national conference in Brisbane. It was as much playing to them that his speech was directed as it was to the Continue reading »
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AUKUS tensions surface at Labor’s national conference as Albanese’s ambitions for the party become clear. An empty vessel
On one side of the discussion there was a disparate collection of people expressing concerns about a profound policy shift which has a multitude of troubling — and unanswered — questions attached to it. Continue reading »
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The ALP can improve democratic representation
The need for major governance system change in Australia is becoming more obvious daily but this is not obvious to the party in power federally and in five states, the ALP. Therefore, it is useful to reflect on this so that more ALP members begin to encourage their politicians to act accordingly. A preparedness to Continue reading »
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Support an Independent Inquiry into AUKUS
Since the Labor government endorsed Scott Morrison’s AUKUS Defence Policy, many former Labor leaders, diplomats and academics have questioned whether there has been adequate assessment of the many risks associated with this secret deal that has not been formally assessed for its impact on Australians. Continue reading »
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Australia, alliances and deterrence: AUKUS will not make us safer
By entering the AUKUS Partnership in 2021, Australia has undertaken to co-operate with the United States and the United Kingdom, two nuclear-weapon states, with objectives that include acquiring nuclear-powered submarines that would be armed with conventional weapons. This has the potential to weaken both the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), by setting a Continue reading »
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Oppenheimer and the “forever” wars: Have we learnt nothing?
For the first time since the US achieved global domination economically and militarily after WWII, the military industrial complex and Biden administration fear the rise of China. They have decided that it must be crushed. The US, NATO and its compliant states have whipped up a frenzy of fear and loathing for the Chinese. This Continue reading »
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The United States has troops operating inside China
There’s a lot of controversy over what China is doing in the South China Sea, but there seems to be very little in the way of perspective. The recent “water attack” on Philippines vessels was not a hostile act by a military nation, it was a Chinese Coastguard ship deterring another nation from building on Continue reading »
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AUKUS a cover for the Coalition’s nuclear power agenda
The federal Coalition’s dissenting report on a Senate inquiry into nuclear power claims that Australia’s “national security” would be put at risk by retaining federal legislation banning nuclear power and that the “decision to purchase nuclear submarines makes it imperative for Australia to drop its ban on nuclear energy.” Continue reading »