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scomo is buying missiles while frydenberg is not smiling about you, bludgers...
If the bleaker, bolder and more bellicose outlook on security in our region triggers instant pangs of anxiety and alarm among Australians, there is probably a perverse benefit to the discomfort.
It saves time.
The thinking that shapes this starkly more assertive defence plan is based on one foundational belief: that sooner or later, everyone will reach the same conclusion about threats to this island, and sooner is preferable to later.
A bit like fighting a virus, time is as precious as money when a nation is trying to repel an unwanted advance.
A level of consent from the people goes a long way too, which is why Scott Morrison's blunt language about the abrupt disappearance of the "benign security environment" is calculated to jolt the public into accepting the military escalation the PM's ordering and it is paying for.
At $270 billion over a decade, the money is considerable, but dollars alone do not explain what's happened in defence, diplomatic and national security thinking since the last Defence White Paper was handed down by Malcolm Turnbull in 2016.
In four years — but really closer to two — the people who hear, watch and interpret the words and actions of Australia's friends and potential foes have undergone a revolution in their understanding of China's intentions in particular and the irascibility of Trump's America.
That change is amplified again in Morrison's delivery of the latest update.
Forget "hawks" versus "doves". The doves were pecked mercilessly, and quietly fled a while back.
The better metaphor for those working on Australia's foreign policy are the frontier boundary riders, erecting fences and warding off any unwanted approaches.
China at the centre of changesIt is pretty much all about China these days.
Who else could the Prime Minister be talking about when he contrasts this country's approach with an unnamed other "we don't seek to entangle or intimidate or silence our neighbours" as he vows "to shape, to deter, and to respond with credible military force, when required".
Who else could the White Paper be referring to when it inserts the words "coerce" or "coercion" a dozen times in a document only 12 pages in length.
He is not freelancing, but accurately reflecting the wider shift in thinking and disposition that the boundary riders have adopted.
In their view, there's no point in a prime minister banging on about defending the international "rules-based order" anymore — China's not playing by those rules and Trump is rewriting them on the fly, as he sees fit, on any given day.
So it's gone, Morrison's not even paying lip service to those quaint notions anymore.
Read more:
- By Gus Leonisky at 2 Jul 2020 - 6:50am
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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pig-iron scummo dreams of being visionary...
Scott Morrison has unveiled a more aggressive defence strategy aimed at countering the rise of China, while warning that Australia faces regional challenges on a scale not seen since World War II.
Key points:The strategy increases the focus on the Indo-Pacific region, with the Prime Minister warning that Australia needs to prepare for a post-COVID-19 world that is "poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly".
Australia will build a larger military that is focused on its immediate backyard, including new long-range anti-ship missiles, signalling a major shift in the nation's defence strategy.
"We have not seen the conflation of global economic and strategic uncertainty now being experienced here in Australia in our region since the existential threat we faced when the global and regional order collapsed in the 1930s and 1940s," the Prime Minister warned.
Read more:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-30/australia-unveils-10-year-defence-strategy/12408232
Meanwhile, soon, you will find the news about anything, inside your morning cornflake packet as the ABC is being completely destroyed by budget cuts... and sold for scrap to Uncle Rupe... who has been eyeing the ABC archives for yonks...
BEWARE... Vote against ScoMo's hypocrisy and dirty tricks, should you be living in Eden-Monaro...
george does it again...
The chair of the federal Parliament’s committee on international trade, George Christensen, has compared China – Australia’s biggest trading partner – to Nazi Germany, on new right-wing social media site Parler.
“The Prime Minister is reminded of the 1930s when looking at global instability today. No prizes for guessing who is playing the role of Nazi Germany,” the MP wrote.
It was posted just hours after Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke of the need for “stronger deterrence capabilities” for the military.
On Wednesday, Mr Morrison announced a national defence strategy update which outlined billions in new spending on long-range missiles, surveillance capabilities, armed drones and undersea warfare.
The PM alluded to growing concerns over Chinese influence and activity in the Asia-Pacific region, saying Australia faced “one of the most challenging times we have known since the 1930s and the early 1940s.”
Read more:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/07/02/george-christensen-china/
Read from top.
saving a few old lives...
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has warned the coronavirus lockdowns in Melbourne could cost the national economy $1 billion per week.
Thank you...
paying the rent to mr scrooge...
In March, as the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold, Fang Lu knew there was no way she'd be able to pay the month's rent on her small beauty salon and café in Balwyn.
Key points:
Her takings had shrivelled to almost nothing — forcing her to shut her doors, or open at a loss.
But she says her landlord wasn't interested.
"They just said, 'It's not true. All the shops are doing fine'. They just kept pushing me," she says.
Instead, she was sent a breach notice — with a rent increase, a higher security bond, and penalties for late payment.
Months later, she said her landlord was still pushing her for money, as they demanded to know why she had not opened her doors, and stated she had "failed to mitigate her losses".
Read more:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-18/coronavirus-small-business-struggling-rent-melbourne/12465454
Read from top.
This isn't a unique story and as the catch handle said:
'Going to be a bloodbath': Landlords to send small retailers to the wallan eye-watering deficit...
Josh Frydenberg has warned Australians should brace for “eye-watering” national debts when the latest budget numbers are released.
The Treasurer will hand down the economic and fiscal update, which will take into account the impact of the coronavirus, on Thursday.
He admits the country will remain in deficit for some years to come.
“You’re going to see eye-watering numbers around debt and deficit, numbers that Australians have never seen before,” Mr Frydenberg told Nine on Wednesday.
“That’s the harsh reality of this pandemic; the coronavirus has required the government to spend unprecedented amounts of money to support people in need.
“We’ve also taken a big hit on the revenue side because obviously businesses are not making the profits they were, people are not in jobs in the same numbers they were.”
Read more:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/07/22/get-ready-for-eye-watering-deficit-figures-treasurer/
Read from top...
See also:
swimming with crocodiles in a swamp after escaping a massive bushfire crisis...the DT would have run out of ludlow zeros...
In the old days of lead linotype, wood-ludlow, the creators of this Daily Telegraph cover would not have had enough zeros to compose the headline...
The DT does not like the "woke" brigade, especially in regard to Capt Cook... And the government will send you the Covid19 bill in instalment for the next 30 years, until the next disaster comes along and extends the drama...
Read from top.
the toon is relative...
The cartoon at top is a bit misleading... Gus saw Frydenberg smile once (after the publication of the said toon) at the Journalist Club, Kanbra, when, following in the footsteps of his glorious predecessor Costello, he mentioned parents should have more kids as a way to solve the economy — an economy which is looking like what kids do in nappies, at the moment.
Frydenberg also nearly smile, but appeared more in illuminated raptures when mentioning his economic idols, Thatcher and Reagan, who pampered the rich and flogged the poor... Our 1973 Pick of Punch had something to say about one of them, when in the dying presidential days of Dicky Nixon, Ronald Reagan was still only a portrait alongside John Wayne's, at the White House, for having been a passable Hollywoodian star in B-grade movies...
Read from top.