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The ADF’s strained relationship with the Albanese government deepens amid defence budget disputes and growing concerns about China’s influence.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Albanese government are heading towards a bitter divorce.

After gutting defence commitments to operational capabilities, the ADF’s relationship with Albo is reported to be as cold as ice.

The second-term socialist government appears to be more interested in pandering to the Chinese dictator than they are championing Aussie diggers.

Quoting former senior ADF members, the Financial Review said, “The relationship between defence and Labor is at rock bottom.”

Adding to the hostility, Defence Minister Richard Marles has reportedly “read the riot act” to ADF chiefs over finances.

The Financial Review said the widening bureaucratic rift was driven by “frustrations” about resource management.

Disputes Over ADF Funding

Although Marles maintains that Labor’s funding for defence was high and “historic,” ADF leaders are concerned — and not everyone agrees.

Labor’s former defence minister Kim Beazley indicated support for the ADF. Somewhat contradicting Albanese and Marles, Beazley said defence should be increased from 2% to 3% of GDP.

This aligns with America’s request that Australia carry some of its own weight, the Financial Review noted.

However, changes in funding are unlikely to happen. This is largely because the Chinese Communist Party warned Labor that any increase would be punished.

In what looks like a pretext to cover up compliance with those threats, Labor seems to be leveraging scrutiny.

Appealing to Auditor-General (AG) reports, Marles said he won’t increase funding until he gets “more bang for his buck” out of the ADF.

In May, the AG reported that the Defence Force was not meeting a Rudd-era goal of “maximising Australian industry participation.”

ADF Equipment Woes

The already souring relationship between Albo and the ADF hit another snag in June.

In a major blow to morale, the Auditor-General slammed the efficiency of the Navy’s Landing Helicopter Docks (LHDs) — the mighty HMAS Canberra (2014) and HMAS Adelaide (2015).

There were “223 open urgent defects” reportedly plaguing the Royal Australian Navy’s largest ships, the AG report concluded. Calling them less than reliable, the report blamed preparedness failures.

The ADF’s after-market care and maintenance of the amphibious helicopter platforms was not up to scratch, alleged the AG.

Each ship has a 30-year use-by date. Yet there was little done to ensure a transition from acquiring the vessels to being able to properly sustain and service them.

“Value for money was not clearly demonstrated, or managed,” the AG said.

“Workforce shortages and the substandard condition of the vessels when delivered” were also reportedly to blame. Consequently, “the LHDs have operated with ongoing deficiencies and experienced critical failures during operations.”

These all formed the basis of the AG’s nine recommendations to remedy the problems.

Albanese Genuflects to China

Notably, the ADF wasn’t entirely to blame.

Unexpected maintenance costs, delays due to manufacturer defects, and a lack of access to people with the right skills to fix the problems contributed to the poor review.

Moreover, the report had little to say about how the ADF has had to manage crumbs in funding when compared to welfare or the NDIS.

Additionally, there did not seem to be any consideration from the AG about Australia’s shrinking industrial base under Labor. Nor was there any mention of how a lack of domestic contractors might hinder the ADF’s ability to meet Marle’s alleged benchmark.

In spite of these variables, the reports offered Labor a way to save face while appeasing the Chicoms.

As such, regardless of a commitment from chiefs to apply the AG’s recommendations, it’s doubtful they’ll save the ADF from anti-America Albo.

His visit to China naively sidelined the Americans.

Albanese flanking his visit with the Aboriginal and Torres-Strait Islander ethnocentric ensigns also symbolically sidelined Australians.

If the optics are to be believed, the Labor PM is more fond of sharing the camera with Communists than working to shore up Australia’s national interests.

While in China, he looked more like a servant cheerleading for the Chicoms than an Australian statesman.

All this was happening while the ADF served under the national flag, alongside Americans for Talisman Sabre, the biggest biannual military exercise in the Pacific.

Australia’s Flagging Purpose Under Albo

With the Albanese government asserting a China-first, Australia-last position, I share the ADF’s concerns. There’s also the waning sense of national direction and purpose, which appear to be part of Labor’s activist agenda.

Add here the indefensible actions of Albo’s pick for Governor General.

As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Sam Mostyn has little respect for the veterans past, present and emerging. The politicisation of her office is encouraging far-left attacks on Australia’s national identity, and the sinister self-hating scorn for the Stars and Crosses — an apt term for Australia’s national flag.

Labor’s self-justifications for neglecting national defence justify the ADF’s Albo angst. I wouldn’t blame our war fighters if they wanted to quit. Why wait around to be told by Albo that you’re no longer fighting to save the free world — you’re now serving the self-interests of the Chinese Communist Party?

As Mark 8:36 asks, For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, only to lose his soul?

Albo chasing what he thinks is the best of both worlds means we may inherit none.