by Peter Jennings | Aug 19, 2024 | Policy, Uncategorized
On security checks of refugees from Gaza a lot of weight is being put on a handful of sentences uttered by ASIO head Mike Burgess in his recent television interview. Burgess is a smart public servant, defending his own organisation and not seeking to speak for...
by Anthony Bergin and Peter Jennings | Aug 19, 2024 | Policy
The Australian government’s trashing of relations with Israel undermines our strategic interest in the Middle East, damages intelligence co-operation, blunts trade and investment and – uniquely, in our view – puts domestic politics ahead of diplomatic interests. This...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Aug 14, 2024 | AUKUS, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
Disappearing tanks, million dollar missiles, SNAUK | RSS.com SAA’s Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge cover the Australian Army’s tank gap, the Navy’s celebration of missile test firings, and the fact free Frankenstein imagery on AUKUS subs out of...
by Michael Shoebridge | Aug 13, 2024 | AUKUS, Indo Pacific, Policy, Strategy & Capability, Ukraine
We’ve had recent announcements from AUSMIN and AUKUS, the two acronyms describing our peak US-Australia alliance system that combine to show Australia’s defence strategy in action. Together, they demonstrate that Australia’s plan is to rely on US industrial...
by Peter Jennings | Aug 8, 2024 | AUKUS, China, Defence Budget, Strategy & Capability
The Albanese government has given us two defence ministers: Richard “Call me Deputy Prime Minister” Marles and his tireless workmate, Pat Conroy. No one should be surprised to learn the government also has two defence policies. First there is the policy of expanding...
by Peter Jennings | Aug 8, 2024 | Policy
Israel has not acknowledged the role it played planting the bomb which killed Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh in an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ safehouse in Tehran. Take it as read: this was a Mossad operation and one that will put the fear of the Old Testament God...
by Peter Jennings | Aug 6, 2024 | Policy
Anthony Albanese stressed that “words matter” in Monday’s media conference announcing that ASIO boss Mike Burgess had lifted the National Terrorism Threat Level from “possible to probable”. The Prime Minister was mostly taking a swipe against the Greens and Labor...
by Anthony Bergin and Michael Shoebridge | Aug 6, 2024 | Policy
Former Chief of the Australian Defence Force Mark Binskin’s report into the tragic killing in Gaza on 1 April of Zomi Frankcom and six other aid workers from the World Central Kitchen informs us that he received close Israeli military and government cooperation in...
by Bob Lyon and Anthony Bergin | Jul 31, 2024 | China, South Pacific
The Albanese government recently pledged an extra $6.3 million to prevent the loss of banking services in the Pacific at the Pacific Banking Forum in Brisbane. The Forum identified areas for collaboration between commercial banks, central banks, regulators and...
by Michael Shoebridge | Jul 30, 2024 | Strategy & Capability
$800 million developing ‘Ghost Bat’, which was meant to be ‘Australia’s first locally designed combat aircraft in 50 years’, turns out to now be being spent on a platform that will carry sensors instead of weapons. This is an own goal, with a firehose of public...
