Even the Labor government admits we live at a precarious juncture in world history – yet continues to do worse than nothing about it. For all their big talk on defence, Labor are not just clueless, they’re playing tawdry political games.
Just weeks after the Chinese navy conducted a drive by off the Australian coasts, without the government or defence even realising it, China’s close ally Russia is meddling on our northern doorstep. At least this time the government knew about it – and lied through their teeth about it.
The Albanese government was aware before the election campaign started of a Russian request to use Indonesian airfields for long-range military aircraft only 1300km from Darwin.
Australia became aware of the Russian request after a meeting in February this year between the Indonesian Minister of Defence, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, and the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu.
Yet, for weeks, since the facts were reported in the respected Janes defence journal, the government furiously denied it. When they weren’t dodging questions entirely, Labor ministers lied that it wasn’t true, was “fabricated”, and akin to the “Loch Ness monster”. Yet, they’d known for months that it was all 100 per cent true.
Anthony Albanese deflected the calls for more information and used a mistake from Peter Dutton suggesting there had been a formal statement from Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto about the request and accused the Opposition Leader of “reckless behaviour”.
The Prime Minister refused to confirm or deny “the reports” and said “there was no prospect” of a Russian base in Indonesia and cabinet minister Murray Watt denied there was “any proposal” and suggested it was like “the Loch Ness monster”.
“The opposition is asking for a briefing on something that doesn’t exist. I mean they might as well ask for a briefing on the Loch Ness monster. This is something that doesn’t exist, that they fabricated” Senator Watt said.
While Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Rolliansyah Soemirat said that Indonesia “has never granted permission to any country to build or possess a military base in Indonesia”, the actual question was whether or not Russia had made such a request. They had. More to the point, Soemirat admitted that “Indonesia will receive and permit military aircraft or vessels from other nations on peaceful missions to visit Indonesia.”
Russia and Indonesia held joint naval exercises in November last year. Moscow’s ambassador has refused to deny Russia’s request for a military base in Indonesia.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie on Sunday said: “The government needs to stop mocking the concerns of Australians who are worried about apparent attempts to establish a Russian military presence 1300km from our territory.”
“Their story keeps changing. Labor has been slipping and sliding with the truth on what is a serious national security issue. The whole point of diplomacy is to know what is going on in the region. If the Albanese government had no idea of this report, they should just say so,” he said.
Another report Albanese will be doing his best to pretend doesn’t exist is the latest stark warning from a global credit rating agency. Standard and Poor’s admonish that the whole of Australia is heading for the same toilet as Victoria under Labor, first in the ’90s and again today.
Global credit rating agency S&P has warned the Albanese government that a focus on spending in “off budget” items risks Australia’s credit rating.
The agency released a report on Monday titled “Hey Big Spender” that said political promises, “may pressure ‘AAA’ rating on Australia.”
“A proliferation of ‘off budget’ spending programs is increasingly obfuscating Australia’s fiscal position and borrowing needs,” S&P said.
“Off budget” spending is a Clayton’s public debt, where a sneaky government hides the true cost of its spending addiction by not including it in the official budget figures. In Labor’s case, off budget spending is reaching phenomenal levels: in the hundreds of billions. Global monetary groups like the IMF are warning that Australia is in dire financial trouble. S&P’s is just the latest.
S&P warned that the Albanese government’s expected deficit next year could push overall government – including the states – debt into a “rare” position not seen since the global financial crisis.
If our national credit rating is downgraded, it will be a nationwide repeat of the costly humiliation previously heaped on Victoria’s basket-case economies under two different Labor government.
All those ‘free’ government chickens are fast coming home to roost.
