There’s been a lot of recent shouting about Australia’s national security policy.
It began with the Nine newspapers’ “Red Alert” extravaganza, spread over multiple articles. Featuring a graphic of warplanes approaching ominously from Red China, it predicted Australia could be at war in three years, and speculated about Chinese missiles and cyberattacks pummelling Australian infrastructure. It then cheerily recommended some hackneyed solutions for Australia’s security woes – including bringing back conscription, and hosting US nuclear weapons.
Not to be outdone, former prime minister Paul Keating returned fire, branding the recent decision to acquire nuclear-propelled submarines under the AUKUS agreement as “the worst deal in all history”, that marked Australia’s “return to our former colonial master”.
