Have Your Say in the Defence Review 2022
Here’s your chance to provide input on the direction of our national security policies. Below are various topics of concern that you may include in your submission to the defence review.
On August 3, the Albanese Government announced a Defence Strategic Review, and called for submissions from organisations and the public, by October 30. The Review will be headed by former Labor Defence Minister Professor Stephen Smith and retired Chief of the Defence Force Sir Angus Huston.
On July 1, 2020, the Morrison government released the Defence Strategic Update, which identified that there were accelerating changes in Australia’s strategic environment and proposed a moderate upgrade of the nation’s defence capabilities. The 2022 Review will hopefully expand on and re-evaluate the main thrust of that Update.
However, it is apparent even to the most casual observer that the strategic situation in the South China Sea, the Indo-Pacific regions, the conflict in Ukraine, the bug-out from Afghanistan and the recent Pelosi visit to Taiwan coupled with the Chinese aggressive responses to the latter, foreshadow drastic implications for our hemisphere.
For decades, Canberra assured Australians that there would be at least a ten-year warning time of any potential threat to the country. News Weekly has long disputed that soothing government lullaby; but Canberra’s siren song lulled Australians into a stupor and defence acquisitions and preparedness deteriorated to the point where our overall military preparedness is in a parlous state.
Consequently, the Review seeks to better ensure that Australian Defence Force assets, structure and preparedness are positioned to meet looming regional security challenges.
The Looming Threat
So, what is the threat? In simple terms, the looming threat is the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) aggressive expansion into our vital sea-lanes and trade routes; not just in the South China Sea, but in the Pacific and Indian oceans. This means that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) seeks to control or close off the several key choke points within those huge oceans with overwhelming force.
The PLA-N has expanded enormously in recent decades and currently has in excess of 700 major surface combat vessels, nuclear and diesel-powered submarines, three aircraft carriers, ocean-going amphibious ships, mine-warfare ships, and fleet auxiliaries. It has around 90 patrol boats armed with anti-ship missiles and large numbers of armed so-called “fishing vessels”.
- The deployment of PLA forces includes not only coral-island bases in the South China Sea, but also “non-naval” strategic bases in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Djibouti, with plans for “docking ports” at Daru in Papua New Guinea, the Straits of Magellan, the eastern and western entry points to the Panama Canal zone, the Solomon Islands, Angola, Cambodia and Equatorial Guinea, to name a few.
- So, our fabulously mineral-rich Australian isle, sitting in the vast southern Indian and Pacific oceans, looks to an expansionist’s eye like an inviting diorama of “Custer’s last stand” … and that is no “Sitting Bull”.
What is to be Done?
Australia is starting from way behind. We have too few ships, planes, soldiers and sailors, and a choking plethora of red and green tape at every level, state and federal, of government, plus a lack of national will to defend our country against an enemy.
If you have views on defence issues, logistics, manufacturing, supply lines, even on PC wokeism in the Defence force, or climate-change impediments to the efficiency of national defence, please take a few minutes to write to the Review team.
Yes, you might ruffle a few bureaucratic feathers or stampede their sacred cows; but so be it.
The review team will accept submissions from the public until October 30.
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