Labor is building Australia’s future’. How often are we to hear this mindless electoral mantra from Justine Elliot during the coming months?
As highlighted by Professor Jenny Hocking (Echo, January 22), Labor has been an improvement on the decade of coalitional chaos we had to endure, but why has it disappointed so many people?
The debate over the relevance and sense of the AUKUS treaty provides some clues. According to Justine, ‘the Greens rejection of AUKUS undermines our national security, jeopardises critical alliances, and threatens more than 20,000 Australian jobs’.
I have to remind Justine of some realities. Our celebration of the American alliance has drawn us into disastrous wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and could bury us in a confrontation with China. Who knows where the world of Trump will take us? This is why former Labor PM, Paul Keating, and two Labor foreign ministers, Gareth Evans and Bob Carr, have rejected AUKUS as being part of Australia’s future. Carr described AUKUS as ‘fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit’.
The Greens are the only party to echo this view and suggest that the almost $400 billion committed to AUKUS could be better spent elsewhere… and not on the 28 coal and gas projects Labor has approved. Another reason why Australians have lost faith in Labor.
Tony Christy, Suffolk Park
Justine Elliot (Labor) found a way of bringing the police into question about the $368 billion submarine deal alleging that the Greens put the country’s security at risk by even questioning the AUKUS deal brokered by SCOMO. Mandy Nolan (Greens) said Trump’s a bully and asked, ‘Do Australian’s really want to be in his gang?’ The Nationals didn’t get a say, unless you regard Malcom Turnbull (ex Liberal PM) as the relevant conservative voice. He said it was the worst deal ever. Greens Senator David Shoebridge, was quoted as saying ‘Australia should stop being a subservient ally to the US drawn into wars serving Washington’s interests.’
Voters need to be aware that under the AUKUS deal, (three years old now), next year Australia will commence hosting US and UK nuclear submarines that carry nuclear weapons on a rotational basis at its Stirling naval base, Perth. Whilst currently at Katherine, NT, RAAF Tindal our air base is being expanded to permanently host at least six American B-52 long range nuclear capable heavy bombers.
Why are we risking our security making Australia an obvious target for an anticipated war against our largest trading partner, China?
What, do we expect China not to respond if the US starts bombing them from the NT and launching its nuclear subs from Perth? Before we get a single nuclear sub out of the deal (some time in the next 25 years) the anticipated Chinese invasion of Taiwan will be long over. Either way any such sub would be so technologically dependent on America (despite all of our
money) we would end up like Ukraine having to ask for American permission before we could push a button.
Terry Sharples, Tweed Heads
- Regarding The Echo article ‘Calls for AUKUS to be scrapped’ (January 29) the responses were mostly to be expected.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
