The Trump Effect is sweeping the world. If only it could stir the lazy, clueless Albanese government into action.
The Albanese government has opened the door to boosting defence spending after one of US President Donald Trump’s key Pentagon appointees called for a massive rise in Australia’s military spending from two per cent to three per cent of GDP.
Donald Horne, who famously coined the backhanded compliment, The Lucky Country, once took issue with the left’s sneering that Australia was a ‘vassal’ state. The left’s denunciation, Horne said, missed the essence of what vassalage means. It isn’t a synonym for slavery or servility, as the left characterise it. Instead, Horne said, vassalage is an ancient and honourable tradition. Smaller powers banding together under a stronger one, for their mutual defence.
The important point the sneerers missed, Horne said, is that vassalage is not fealty: the sworn, unconditional servitude to a monarch. Vassalage is a mutual pact. Just as the vassal owes the suzerain, so the reverse is true. A suzerain who neglects to defend or bestow privileges on a vassal has broken the compact.
In return the vassal who failed to return its obligation, most especially in mutual defence, likewise breaks the compact. As such, they cannot count on the suzerain’s protection any longer.
This state of vassalage has characterised the post-war world order. The United States has been a strong suzerain – but its vassals, especially its NATO partners in Europe – have been weak, lazy and often treacherous. In effect, they’ve let their swords rust while they tend only to their own fields, leaving the lord to do all the work of keeping back the barbarians.
Australia has done better… until now. Successive governments have let defence degrade, cutting spending well below the minimum two per cent threshold and bungling procurements. Worse, with their constant denigration of a ‘warrior culture’ (what else would they expect literal warriors to have?), they’ve turned the Australian Defence Force from a redoubtable fighting force to a woke mockery.
While still backing the new AUKUS alliance, the Trump administration is telling Australia exactly what it told Europe: pull your finger out.
Defence Minister Richard Marles revealed the government was ready for an “ongoing conversation” with the Trump administration about lifting defence spending further than the government’s promised $50bn boost over a decade.
With national security set to be a prominent theme of the upcoming federal election, Mr Marles said it was “completely reasonable that America is asking its friends and allies around the world to do more” to safeguard their security.
One of the biggest problems for defence is that it’s run by babbling loons like Marles. Compare the latest from US Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth:
Those who long for peace must prepare for war… That’s why we’re rebuilding our military. That’s why we’re re-establishing deterrence in the warrior ethos. We live in a dangerous world with powerful, ascendant countries with very different ideology.
To Marles’ waffling corporate-speak:
We talked about defence spending, and there was a total acknowledgment of what we are doing in terms of lifting that trajectory. I think this ends up being an ongoing conversation.
Which of those two do you think China is going to take seriously?
It’s certainly not convincing the Trump administration.
Mr Trump’s nominee for head of policy at the Pentagon, Elbridge Colby, said on Wednesday that Australia needed to lift defence spending to at least three per cent of GDP.
Mr Colby also sounded a note of caution about the nation’s AUKUS preparations, warning the US faced “a very difficult problem” in meeting its pledge to supply three Virginia-class boats to Australia, due to its slower-than-expected submarine production […]
Mr Colby told his confirmation hearing that Australia was a “core ally” to the US and military ties between the countries were “excellent”. But he said Australia needed to massively increase its defence budget to be in a position to deter China.
In other words, if Australia doesn’t pull its finger out, the US isn’t going to reciprocate. Sure, defence spending has – very belatedly – been lifting from under two to just 2.03 per cent of GDP. Worse, Labor doesn’t plan to lift spending to the princely total of 2.3 per cent for another decade. That’s far too little, far, far too late to fix a broken and weakened defence force to something even credible in the face of the rapidly rising China threat.
Like Hegseth, opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie is an actual warrior – a former SAS commander in Afghanistan. Hastie is at least clear that Australia has to bring something to the AUKUS table instead of expecting a continued free ride.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said he believed AUKUS was “a lock” under Mr Trump, but he said it was vital the government “demonstrate a strong hand in future negotiations”. He said this could include a Ukraine-style offer of US access to Australia’s rare earth resources. “We’ve also seen in (Mr Trump’s) exchange with President Zelensky, that America is keen on rare earths,” Mr Hastie told the summit.
“So there’s a couple of things that we could be doing with the United States to strengthen our hand as things unfold … like a geopolitical uptake agreement with our rare earths.”
What does the dithering clown in the Lodge have to contribute to the adult conversation?
Anthony Albanese says Australia determines its own national interest in response to calls from the US for Canberra to lift its defence spend.
Then he pivots right to blatherskiting that he Stands With the Current Thing.
He said it was also in Australia’s national interest to support “the brave struggle” of those in Ukraine, regardless of the US having withdrawn its own military aid.
What possible interest is there for Australia in a squabble between two corrupt former Soviet republics on the farthest side of the world imaginable from Australia? Albanese is an absolute fool.
What’s in our national interest is maintaining a close reciprocal relationship with the global superpower with a shared interest in our region and in keeping China at bay.
