Category Archives: Australian military

‘Throwing toothpicks at the mountain’: Paul Keating says Aukus submarines plan will have no impact on China

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Former Australian prime minister also says Britain ‘like an old theme park sliding into the Atlantic’ compared to modern China

The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has denounced the US- and UK-backed plan for nuclear-powered submarines as “like throwing a handful of toothpicks at the mountain”, declaring Australia should avoid being drawn into a war with China.

The former Labor leader on Wednesday accused the major Australian political parties of losing their way on foreign policy, while dismissing the credibility of the UK’s “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific region.

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Under the radar: the Australian intelligence chief in the shadows of the Aukus deal

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Andrew Shearer’s unreported meeting in April with Joe Biden’s top Indo-Pacific adviser may have been the clincher for the Aukus security agreement

It was late April when one of Australia’s top intelligence chiefs arrived in Washington for important talks with key officials in the relatively new Biden administration.

Andrew Shearer, a longtime foreign policy hawk and one of Scott Morrison’s most influential advisers on how Australia should position itself at a time of rising tensions with China, met with Joe Biden’s top Indo-Pacific adviser, Kurt Campbell, in the building next to the White House on 30 April.

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As ‘metal pirates’ loot seabed treasures, there are fears Australia’s first submarine could be next

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The location of HMAS AE1 is a closely held secret but some worry the first world war wreckage will be found by thieves

Scavengers, trophy hunters and “metal pirates” are looting the treasures under the seas – and there are fears Australia’s first submarine could be next.

The location of HMAS AE1’s wreck is a secret closely held by a small group of people, including relatives of the 35 men who were on board when the Royal Australian Navy vessel sank at the outbreak of the first world war.

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Will all submarines, even nuclear ones, be obsolete and ‘visible’ by 2040?

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Technologies could render the ocean transparent by the time Australia’s new submarines are ready, some experts say

Australia’s proposed nuclear-powered submarines could be obsolete by the time they hit the water in the 2040s due to new technologies making underwater vessels “visible”, some experts argue.

One of the controversies over the federal government’s decision to ditch the $90bn deal to build conventional submarines in favour of nuclear boats is the timeline for getting them battle-ready.

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Macron yet to take call from Australia’s Scott Morrison over sub snub

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Australian PM hopes to speak with French president ‘when the time is right and the opportunity presents’

French president Emmanuel Macron has not yet taken a call from Scott Morrison amid continuing fury in Paris over the torn up submarine deal.

Morrison, the Australian prime minister, said he hoped to speak with Macron “when the time is right and when the opportunity presents” but he understood “the hurt and the disappointment” felt by France over the cancellation of the $90bn arrangement.

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Is China stepping up its ambition to supplant US as top superpower?

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Analysis: Joe Biden has cleared the decks to focus on China. But how imminent is the danger?

It may have been an inelegantly, even ineptly, executed pivot, gratuitously alienating key allies, but by leaving Afghanistan and forming the Australian, US and UK security pact in the Indo-Pacific, Joe Biden has at least cleared the decks to focus on his great foreign policy challenge – the systemic rivalry with China.

Yet the concern now is how quickly this rivalry could escalate, especially in Taiwan. The linchpin of the US alliance system in south-east Asia, Taiwan is the biggest island in the “first island chain”, the group of islands that keeps China blocked in. It is China’s next target, and as the former British prime minister Theresa May pointed out, no one quite knows if the west is prepared to fight to save Taiwan or whether the new tripartite pact in some way places a new obligation on the UK to come to the country’s defence.

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‘We felt fooled’: France still furious after Australia scraps $90bn submarine deal

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‘Maybe we’re not friends,’ recalled ambassador says, claiming Scott Morrison ‘kept us in the dark intentionally’

French anger at the Morrison government’s decision to scrap its $90bn submarine program with France continues to boil over, with the country’s recalled ambassador saying it felt “fooled” by the announcement.

Jean-Pierre Thebault was ordered back to Paris in the wake of the Aukus announcement, which will see Australia enter into a strategic “forever partnership” with the US and the UK.

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Diplomacy dialled up to 11: Australia saddles up with US as Indo-Pacific heads for cold war | Katharine Murphy

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Australia didn’t announce the ‘forever partnership’ while Donald Trump was in the White House. What happens if he returns?

Ever flexible, ever the pragmatist, Scott Morrison started thinking about his new “forever partnership” with the United States and Britain 18 months ago while Australia was still tied to a $90bn contract with France to build submarines.

Australia looked to America because of a practical consideration. If the Morrison government was going to jettison the troubled French proposal, and countenance the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, the US possessed the technology that would suit Australia’s purposes.

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China warns US-UK-Australia pact could ‘hurt own interests’

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Aukus described as ‘exclusionary’ amid French anger at scrapping of $90bn submarine deal with Australia

China has told the US, the UK and Australia to abandon their “cold war” mentality or risk harming their own interests after the three countries unveiled a new defence cooperation pact.

The trilateral security partnership, named Aukus, was announced on Thursday by the three nations’ leaders via video link, and will include an 18-month plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

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‘That fella down under’: Joe Biden forgets Scott Morrison’s name during historic pact announcement

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US president calls Australian prime minister ‘that fella down under’ at press conference for new trilateral security partnership

Scott Morrison has been called many things, but “that fella down under” may be the one that stays with the Australian prime minister the longest.

The blunder came as the US president, Joe Biden, announced a trilateral security partnership with Britain and Australia, called Aukus. It will see the US share nuclear technology that will help Australia create a multibillion-dollar fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

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Watch in full: Biden, Johnson and Morrison announce Aukus and nuclear-powered submarine deal – video

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The US, the UK and Australia have announced they are setting up a trilateral security partnership aimed at confronting China, which will include helping Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines. US President Joe Biden, UK prime minister Boris Johnson and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison announced the deal together virtually

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Australia secures Pfizer doses from Poland as Victoria chases mystery cases – as it happened

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12 Sydney LGAs to get half of the one million extra Pfizer doses secured from Poland; rapid antigen testing to be trialled in some Sydney aged care homes. This blog is now closed

We’ll leave it there for now. Here are today’s main developments:

Police are cracking down on large gatherings in breach of Victoria’s lockdown restrictions, reports AAP.

In the inner city, dozens congregated for a takeaway drink pub crawl event on the streets of Richmond on Saturday, while in Northcote about 200 people gathered for a street party.

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Australia Covid live update: some children aged 12 to 15 eligible for vaccine; NSW confirms 207 cases and 15th death; Qld records 13 cases and extends lockdown

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NSW records 15th death; Queensland announces business support package as it extends lockdown in 11 LGAs until Sunday; South Australia restrictions eased; Victoria records two local cases; 300 ADF troops start patrolling in Sydney. Follow latest updates

David Gillespie has been seen in the parliament – so Christian Porter has been chosen to be the acting leader of the house, ahead of Gillespie who is the deputy leader of the house.

Barnaby Joyce will be holding a press conference in 15 minutes to talk extended support for the aviation industry.

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Australians fear attack from China almost as much as Taiwanese do, survey finds

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More than four in 10 Australians think Chinese are coming and analysts say that’s due to government’s ‘drums of war’ rhetoric


More than four in 10 Australians are worried China may attack Australia, according to new polling, expressing a level of fear that is nearly as high as among Taiwan’s population.

The Australia Institute, a progressive thinktank that commissioned polling in both Australia and Taiwan, said the “astounding” findings may be partly explained by some government figures in Canberra “beating the drums of war”.

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‘Hundreds’ of photos exist of Australian soldiers drinking from dead Afghan’s prosthetic leg, court told

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Ben Roberts-Smith’s lawyers in his defamation action say they have been overwhelmed by new tranche of documents including the images

There are “hundreds” of photos of Australian soldiers drinking from a prosthetic leg – allegedly taken from a slain Afghan – at an unauthorised bar at Australia’s military base in Afghanistan, a court has heard.

The existence of some photographs was previously known, and a handful had been widely broadcast and published. But the full extent of the photos from the Australian soldiers’ underground bar, the Fat Ladies’ Arms, was revealed before the federal court on Wednesday.

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How the ‘good war’ went bad: elite soldiers from Australia, UK and US face a reckoning

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As coalition troops prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years, former soldiers, key officers and the public are asking what went wrong with some special forces

“Whatever we do … ,” one Australian special forces soldier said of his service in Afghanistan, “I can tell you the Brits and the US are far, far worse.

“I’ve watched our young guys stand by and hero worship what they were doing, salivating at how the US were torturing people. You just stand there and roll your eyes and wait for it to end.”

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Taliban threaten Afghan security guards who work for Australian embassy in Kabul

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Guards say their work for Australia has made them and their families targets for retribution

The Taliban have publicly threatened Afghan security guards who have worked for the soon-to-be-shut Australian embassy, circulating pictures of them online and warning they would be targeted for cooperating with a foreign government.

The Australian government announced this week that it was shutting its embassy in Kabul, citing “an increasingly uncertain security environment” and saying its diplomats would not be safe “in light of the imminent international military withdrawal from Afghanistan”.

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Defence’s $37m spending on private helicopter hire ‘beyond a joke’, Labor says

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Department concedes fault found in Taipan chopper could have led to ‘catastrophic consequences’

Australia’s defence department has revealed it is spending $37m to hire private helicopters as it grapples with low availability of the trouble-plagued Taipan choppers.

The move comes as defence officials concede a fault found in one of the helicopters in 2019 – when it was on its way to pick up the Australian defence force chief, Angus Campbell – could have led to “catastrophic consequences” if left unfixed.

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Australian defence minister says conflict over Taiwan involving China ‘should not be discounted’

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Peter Dutton says Australia is focused on maintaining good relations with Beijing but China has been ‘very clear’ about its plans for reunification

The Australian defence minister, Peter Dutton, has said a conflict involving China over Taiwan cannot be discounted but he insists the government’s focus remains on having “good relations” with Beijing.

Dutton was on Sunday asked about the prospect of a “battle over Taiwan” following remarks from the former defence minister, Christopher Pyne, and the ex-prime minister, Tony Abbott, about China’s expansionist plans in the region.

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