CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Diplomatic and factional tensions are high in Canberra this week, as Albanese faces foreign and internal backlash for his decision to go through with Scott Morrison’s rushed AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.
This comes nearly two years after Australia was forced to pay $500 million to rip up its multi-billion dollar submarine contract with the French – so that Scotty From Marketing could get photographed singing a new deal with Boris and Biden when he started slipping in the polls.
For the previous government, It was a political play that killed two birds with one stone: 1, putting nuclear power back on the table – and 2, aggravating China like Donald Trump asked us to.
Unfortunately for anyone who has an issue with the very clear risks associated with letting an Australian government fuck around with nuclear, the new Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has decided the AUKUS agreement is one of very few Morrison Government programmes that he will not be reversing.
The the new plan means that Australia will become only the second country after the UK to gain access to these nuclear blueprints from the US. A momentous honour that excites Australian politicians much more than it does President Joe Biden, as our government uses military technological advancements as a cunning guise to shoehorn nuclear energy onto Australian soil.
However, as former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating outlined in a venomous National Press Club Address – this is a war hawk approach – and a fucking stupid one at that.
While prominent Australian war hawks, like the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher and Opposition leader Peter Dutton, gently caress their groins at the prospect of a Gallipoli 2.0 – the criticism of this kind of bear-poking is equally as bipartisan, with voices from both sides of politics arguing that the ANZAC Spirit isn’t going to be enough to win a war against 1.5 billion Chinese people.
But what do the punters think? Do they appreciate our elected officials spending $368 billion on the 30-year build of 3 or 4 submarines at the height of a cost of living crisis?
Speaking to the Betoota Advocate today, local single father of 3, Ken Kerrods (36) says his patriotism is getting tested by this kind of decadent government spending.
“I can’t find a 2 bedroom house with windows to rent for under $900 in any town with jobs” says Ken.
“To be fair. I wouldn’t mind a Chinese invasion right now. I’ve seen the fucking towers they can build when they set their minds to it”
“I can’t see what else they’d want from Australia, other than this unsustainable property market we used to their dollars to manipulate”
