Danger On Our Doorstep by Jim Molan

Author:Jim Molan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

CURRENT POLICY

Many Australians across this nation are uncomfortable with what Australia is doing in defence and national security, but, understandably, few if any have the experience to make a detailed judgment. Instead, they depend on me and others who are similarly qualified to provide what they are not getting from the government. What they do want is for the government to act, and to act effectively. Many are just not sure what ‘effective’ looks like.

Governments in Australia frequently say that they have no greater duty than to keep our people safe and protect our way of life for future generations. As a member of the recent Coalition government, I was impressed by the way prime ministers Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison each improved upon their predecessors’ approach to defence. Australia under the Coalition showed distinct signs of resolve. More money was allocated to defence and there was a plan as to how that money should be spent. In the past, the Coalition had reflected the complacent view of the Australian people towards defence in some ways, but more recently it led the Australian people much more effectively in this area. It does not reflect a partisan position to say that only the Coalition can be trusted on defence; this is what the record, at least of defence expenditure and projects started or completed, shows. But we will have to see how the new Labor government responds.

The aberration of Gillard’s security strategy aside, Labor during the Rudd–Gillard–Rudd governments generally used defence as a cash cow to pay for its social programs, reducing the expenditure on defence to pre–World War II levels, 1.6% of GDP. This has meant that many of the programs that should be in place now, when Australia is facing an identifiable threat, are not there. The prime example is shipbuilding: the Labor Party did not lay down one keel during the entire time it was in power. As of May 2022, the Coalition had completed or started the building or purchase of 70 ships for the Royal Australian Navy.

The Australian political party known as the Greens has an ill-considered defence policy, essentially aimed at disarming Australia at a time when the region is more uncertain than it has been since 1945. If the new Labor government needs to rely on the Greens in government, then a suboptimal approach to defence might be the price it is prepared to pay.

Because we must prepare for the kind of war that I have described in this book, I believe Australia needs the Coalition. The last Coalition government did more for defence than any previous government since the end of the Vietnam War. But far, far more needs to be done, and I fear that only the Coalition has the attitude and knowledge to do this. Yet Australia now relies on a Labor government that will need to prove its credentials with regard to national security.

One of the real strengths of the Coalition is that backbench senators and members of parliament are permitted, in fact encouraged, to speak their minds.

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