Leaving aside former the prime minister Paul Keating’s anti-Aukus spray at the National Press Club on Wednesday, perhaps the strongest criticism about this week’s trilateral submarine deal between Australia, the US and the UK has come from Beijing. Rehearsing now-familiar talking points, the Chinese government on Tuesday decried Aukus as an example of a “typical cold war mentality” and a threat to both “regional peace and stability” and the “international nuclear non-proliferation regime”. This stream of Chinese government objections is likely to grow to a flood as Aukus takes shape.…
Tag: Australian politics
Paul Keating labels Aukus submarine pact ‘worst deal in all history’ in attack on Albanese government
Paul Keating has labelled the $368bn Aukus nuclear submarine plan as the “worst deal in all history” and “the worst international decision” by a Labor government since Billy Hughes tried to introduce conscription. The former Labor prime minister launched an extraordinary broadside against the Albanese government at the National Press Club on Wednesday, blasting the “incompetence” of Labor backing the decision to sign up to Aukus while in opposition and when it had “no mandate” to do so. Keating also singled out the defence and foreign affairs ministers, Richard Marles…
‘Only one is paying. Our bloke’: Paul Keating attacks Labor leadership over Aukus deal – video
Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating savages his own party for signing up to the Aukus submarine deal. Keating calls the Aukus press event held in the US with Anthony Albanese, Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak ‘kabuki theatre’. The former PM says one of the ‘principle problems’ of the deal is that ‘defence has overtaken foreign policy’. He goes on to attack the foreign minister, Penny Wong, saying, ‘running around the Pacific Islands with a lei around your neck handing out money, which is what Penny does, is not foreign policy’…
Those worried about Australia’s sovereign capability under Aukus miss the point. That ship has sailed | Bec Strating
The Aukus pact has revealed its long-awaited plan that would make Australia the seventh member of an exclusive club of nuclear-propulsion states. Aukus is, we’re told, a high-risk endeavour but one that will yield potentially high rewards in terms of Australia’s ability to defend its sovereign interests and shape the regional security environment. Indeed, it reflects Australia’s anxieties about the changing security environment in Asia, especially concerning a rising China, and its willingness to step into the role of a “regional power”. China’s own naval capabilities are growing: the People’s…
Australia news live: Victorian energy prices to jump almost a third as Bowen calls on Coalition to ‘look in the mirror’
From 1h ago Chris Bowen throws back to Coalition on energy price rises The energy minister is borrowing a turn of phrase out of Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech when asked about the Coalition’s suggestion that capping coal and gas prices will, in the longer run, increase prices. Chris Bowen: I invite the Coalition to have a look in the mirror. I mean, he had the independent energy regulator this morning pointing out that without the intervention, the price rises would have been closer to 50%. An intervention that Mr Dutton…
Penny Wong hits back at China’s claim Aukus nuclear submarines will fuel an arms race
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has hit back at China’s response to Aukus, insisting that its criticisms of the nuclear-powered submarine deal are “not grounded in fact”. In an interview with Guardian Australia, Wong also signalled that she planned to make further visits to south-east Asia and the Pacific to reassure the region that Australia does not seek to escalate military tensions. After the announcement of a multi-decade plan that could cost as much as $368bn between now and the mid-2050s, Wong said no rational observer could conclude…
What is the Aukus submarine deal and what does it mean? – the key facts
In a tripartite deal with the US and the UK, Australia has unveiled a plan to acquire a fleet of up to eight nuclear-powered submarines, forecast to cost up to $368bn between now and the mid-2050s. Australia will spend $9bn over the next four years. From this year Australian military and civilian personnel will embed with US and UK navies, including within both countries’ submarine industrial bases. From 2027 the UK and the US plan to rotate their nuclear-powered submarines through HMAS Stirling near Perth as part of a push…
Paul Keating blasts Age and SMH for ‘provocative’ China war story
The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has accused two of the country’s biggest newspapers of “the most egregious and provocative news presentation” in five decades, after they published front-page stories warning the country faced war with China within three years. The former Labor leader, who has long argued Australia should not be drawn into a war over the status of democratically governed Taiwan, took aim at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age on Tuesday. The papers published a special report based on assessments of five national security experts…
Australia news live: Wong urges China not to arm Russia; Clare O’Neil slams ‘politicisation of national security’
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China is carrying out ‘blatant’ influence operations in Australia, Malcolm Turnbull says
Australian security agencies know China is carrying out “blatant” influence operations despite the lack of listings on the country’s transparency register, the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has told an inquiry. Turnbull said on Tuesday he was “puzzled” the legislation his government introduced was not more rigorously enforced and that officials should not treat it as a “robotic box-ticking exercise”. Under the foreign influence transparency scheme (Fits) that took effect in late 2018, people must register activities they carry out in Australia on behalf of a foreign principal to shape…