The old expression ‘lost a pound and found a penny’ is acquiring brutal new currency in the context of the Labor government’s gutting of Australia’s defence capability, even as China openly gears up for war. The Albanese government is dodging the hard choice of having to tool Australia up to face the most dangerous strategic situation since the 1930s, preferring instead to beggar the national economy with beer and circuses and windmills.
From destroying the nation’s energy capabilities to eradicating the last vestiges of our manufacturing base, there’s nothing Labor isn’t doing to weaken our defence. And, while China is rapidly building its military, Labor are slashing ours, to pay for their socialist grift.
The Albanese government is poised to announce a major overhaul of the Department of Defence intended to reduce the multibillion-dollar cost blowouts and years-long delays that have marred recent major military projects.
The changes, to be announced as early as Monday, have been described by industry sources as a “wholesale reorganisation” of the defence bureaucracy and the most significant revamp in decades as Australia ramps up military spending.
The latter is a blatant lie. As US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has warned, Australia needs to spend at least 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence, just to catch up. Australia has in fact been stuck at two per cent or lower for the entire time Labor have been in office. They’re not even pretending to start increasing that for at least the next three years.
In the meantime, they’re actually cutting back defence. To be fair, some of it is welcome paring back of a bloated, top-heavy military. Dozens of colonel or above officers are set to be cut back. Given that Australia has more top brass per personnel, and paid vastly higher than the British or US militaries, that’s long-overdue trimming of military fat.
As part of the changes, the government is expected to scrap three existing defence agencies – the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise, the Naval Shipbuilding and Sustainment Group – and create a national armaments division.
Sources familiar with the overhaul said it was designed to give the government more control over major acquisitions and avoid a repeat of the much-maligned Hunter-class project, which has been beset by design changes, delays and cost overruns.
The government last year decided to cut the number of Hunter-class frigates from nine to six because of concerns they lacked firepower.
There is a strong view within the government that the department has lacked accountability and needs to be transformed to ensure the defence force can respond to growing geostrategic competition in the Indo-Pacific, including China’s rapid military build up.
Yet, in the most critical emerging sphere of defence – space – Australia’s capability isn’t even Mickey Mouse.
The Australian Defence Force will have to rely on an ageing, vulnerable commercial satellite for battlefield communications for up to eight more years after the axing of a planned $7bn military-grade system, threatening its ability to fight against a capable enemy.
The Albanese government has signed a $180m contract to keep using the Intelsat IS-22 satellite launched in 2012 and extend its life until 2033, despite pledging to develop a more resilient and capable system.
Experts warned that the IS-22 platform, which provides ultra-high frequency tactical communications for the ADF, was no longer fit for purpose and at risk of being jammed in an electronic warfare attack.
That’s if the Chinese don’t just fly a kamikaze satellite right up next to and blow it to shreds.
And, yet again, Labor’s actions are at stark odds with its rhetoric.
The Australian revealed 12 months ago that the government was cancelling its planned multi-satellite project known as JP9102, which was budgeted at between $5.2bn and $7.2bn and had been in the works for a decade.
At the time, Defence Minister Richard Marles argued that the ADF needed a more cutting-edge system, warning that the planned satellites were at risk of being “shot out of the sky” […]
But an industry source said the ADF was being forced to rely on an “old satellite with no resilience features” because the government had “dithered” so long on developing a replacement system. The IS-22 satellite provided coverage of the Indian Ocean but the new contract will allow it to be relocated to meet ADF needs.
The deal comes amid concerns over the effectiveness of another commercial satellite used by the ADF, Optus C1, which was launched in 2003 and provided coverage over the Asia-Pacific.
The source said the C1 satellite was “at the end of its life”, leaving IS-22 as the force’s primary communications platform in the absence of US support.
Support that is less and less likely to be forthcoming if the US decides, justifiably enough, that Australia is refusing to pull its weight in our collective defence. The days of left-wing governments taking a free ride on the US’ coat-tails, while at the same time thumbing their noses at Uncle Sam, are coming to an end.
And all it will take is for China to cripple one satellite, and our warships and fighter planes will be blind and dumb.
We really are not a serious country any more.
