Comment on John Menadue's article

May 29, 2025

This article is very well written. I think US influence is very pervasive and instituitionalised. In 2023, The Age published two separate reports stating the Oz government has approved several US generals and admirals and CIA operatives to be based here. I did not read of any public comments or reactions. Under their watchful eyes, any major policy changes in the interest of Oz will be very difficult.

Most of our citizens have poor Asia literacy, let alone proficiency in Asian languages. I suggest changing our history syllabus (50%) to cover all the major civilisations and religions (Western/Christianity, Chinese, Indian, Islam, Buddhism) as a start. Learning Indonesian ought to be the next step as it is widely spoken in for or five ASEAN countries. In this way, our citizens will slowly become more comfortable with our geography.

In terms of security and defence, Oz needs to be more independent. Brian Farrell, a British historian in his book, The defence and fall of Singapore stated that the British Government was nearly broke in the 1920s. It could not maintain the home fleet and the Far East fleet. Hence 15000 diggers in Singapore should have been in PNG.

Today, the US debt is US$36 trillion!