This week there's a lot to talk about internationally because PM Anthony Albanese has been in the US and the UK. For the latter visit, the attitude of the Australian media has been displaying cultural cringe at its worst. Please understand that Australia does not need to "shore up" AUKUS because it's the UK begging us for our dollars. The PM now has a meeting with US President Donald Trump on October 20 and who knows how that will go because if Mr Trump's rambling, incoherent speech to the United Nations was anything to go by, he appears to have lost his mind. Finally a few more brief words about Xinjiang - and anyone who wants to understand China today has to look at the last 200 years of history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episode 110
This podcast was recorded in Beijing at the end of a 12 day visit to China, the bulk of which was spent in the Xinjiang Autonomous region looking at topics such as the Belt & Road Initiative and the status of the Uighur ethnic community. But it has still been possible to keep an eye on events in Australia such as the supposed $12 billion investment in the Henderson maritime precinct and the failure to secure treaties with Vanuatu and now PNG. Plenty of egg on face for those - though the setbacks might be temporary. Also, the US seems to be descending into fascism, not that any Australian politicians care. Finally, some words about the treatment of the Uighurs. Has there been repression? Yes. But no one talks about the reasons why - dozens of extremely violent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists during a 20 year period. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episode 109
A correction to start with - Ukraine's Flamingo cruise missiles have a range of 3,000km, not the 1,000km mentioned in the previous podcast, giving rise to the question: if Ukraine can develop their own long-range cruise missiles, why can't Australia? Next we have the comical renaming of the US Defense Department to the War Department, as if this will do anything other than expose the Trump administration to more ridicule. Make no mistake, continuing pro-Russia actions make it abundantly clear that President Trump is not a supporter of democracies - and that could extend to Australia as the US retreats slowly into a posture of homeland defence. We look at nuclear submarine numbers in the US and UK with new analysis provided by retired submariner RADM Peter Briggs and it's not a pretty picture. If only we had stuck with France. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episode 108
We start with some thoughts about the still unexplained visit to Washington DC in the final week of August by Defence Minister Richard Marles. The exact circumstances of his meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remain unclear. Perhaps the visit was a substitute for the annual AUSMIN talks, which might not go ahead because of a lack of interest on the US side. The Australian government does not seem to realise that most of the world is rapidly realigning to minimise dependence on the erratic Trump administration. In our region Japan and the Republic of Korea are re-evaluating their relationship with Washington - and India has had enough and is trying to rapidly improve relations with China and possibly Russia. This means that the Quad - the security agreement between the US, Australia, Japan and India - is dead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episode 107
Unfortunately the prediction in the previous podcast that the Trump administration will continue down the path of being an unreliable security partner is proving to be correct. US politics is swerving in a dangerous direction of dismantling many aspects of how a government functions - a process that has historical roots. Practical manifestations are things like on the one hand approving the sale of weapons to Ukraine, but on the other hand severely limiting how they can be used. The results of the Elbridge Colby revenue into AUKUS are expected by late November - and we predict that the sale of second-hand nuclear submarines will only go ahead if Australia can meet certain conditions, such as lifting Defence spending to 3.5% of GDP. Finally some speculation about why the Mogami frigate wasn't selected for SEA 3000 two years ago since it's now apparent it was always the preferred choice of the RAN. Could it be that two years ago only the basic Mogami was under construction but by delaying the decision until now the upgraded version is under contract meaning the Navy will get a much bigger ship with twice the number of VLS cells than the ship of 2023? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
These podcasts are a way of shedding a bit more light on Defence decisions – particularly acquisitions – because the system has become secretive and taxpayers have a right to know what’s going on. But it’s even worse than that with Defence sometimes putting out information that is misleading and in some cases plain wrong. We discuss the Defence Strategic Review and debunk the claims that it is some sort of radical and positive move. No it is not. We also have a few words about the outrageous decision to purchase the SURTASS towed array sonar via FMS and preview the ANAO report into the Hunter class frigate program. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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