To paraphrase Mark Steyn on Barack Obama, maybe Anthony Albanese isn’t a Chinese fifth columnist – but if he was, what would he be doing any different?
At what is widely agreed is the most dangerous strategic juncture since WWII, Albanese and his government are doing nothing but systematically weakening Australia in almost every way possible. Whether it’s crippling our industrial base – critical to maintaining defence capability – or downgrading the Australian Defence Force, with no meaningful spending on the horizon for at least a decade, Albanese is giving every impression of someone dedicated to laying Australia wide open for communist China.
Which is surely just coincidental to the fact that Chinese Communist Party-linked operatives have poured massive funding into the Labor party, as well as turning out hundreds of ‘volunteers’ during the recent election campaign.
Australia’s allies are taking notice.
Australia has been asked to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP “as soon as possible,” with the request being relayed directly from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on the sidelines of the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore.
As European nations learned the hard way, President Trump does not suffer mendicants and shirkers gladly. For decades, America’s NATO partners had taken them for a ride, welching on their treaty requirements on defence spending, safe in the knowledge that US taxpayers would shoulder the burden of fending off communism. Instead of defence, the EU blew the money on massive welfare systems.
The US is pushing its allies and partners across the world to contribute more to their own defence rather than seeking to free ride on the American defence shield and nuclear umbrella.
When Trump declared the US had had enough and threatened to pull American defence from Europe unless the EU mendicants lifted their own contributions, EU leaders panicked. For the first time in decades, many are lifting their defence spending to the minimum required by NATO.
Albanese isn’t getting the message.
Anthony Albanese, asked whether Australia would support the United States in defending Taiwan, has said only that it backs “the status quo” and has rejected a call from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to raise defence spending to three per cent of GDP […]
Asked about supporting the US to defend Taiwan, Mr Albanese responded: “Our position with regard to Taiwan is very clear – has been for a long period of time – which is a bipartisan position to support the status quo.”
Which is to say, kow-towing to Beijing.
Besides, Albanese is too busy spitting bile at Israel to be bothered paying attention closer to home.
As Albanese’s beloved Leon Trotsky (even the far left faction of the ALP pegged him as a ‘young Trot’, when he entered politics) would say, Albanese may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
In his speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue, Mr Hegseth said […] While the US did not seek a conflict with Beijing, Mr Hegseth said that “China’s behaviour towards its neighbours and the world is a wake-up call. And an urgent one.”
China was “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. We know. It’s public that Xi has ordered his military to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027.”
He said that “if deterrence fails, and if called upon by my Commander in Chief, we are prepared to do what the Department of Defence does best – fight and win – decisively.”
Hegseth also fired a pointed shot at those governments welching on their defence spending.
Mr Hegseth said that America’s allies in Asia should now “look to countries in Europe as a new-found example” on defence spending.
“NATO members are pledging to spend five per cent of their GDP on defence, even Germany. So it doesn’t make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies in Asia spend less on defence in the face of an even more formidable threat,” he said.
Take the hint, Albo – not the CCP’s money.
