By Denis Bright
In the wake of the current ascendancy of MAGA politics, the federal LNP’s culture wars against diversity offer populist icing on the cruel agendas of neoliberalism as an appendage of the US Global Alliance. This is for consumption in regional Australia and the most disadvantaged outer metro electorates where preferences from minor far-right parties persist in electing LNP federal representatives.
In preparation for Australia Day, the annual charades have commenced earlier than usual as noted by ABC News (10 December 2024):
Liberal leader Peter Dutton will not stand beside the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at press conferences if he becomes prime minister, insisting Australians should be unified under a single national flag.
The Coalition leader last night said he strongly believed “we’re a country united under one flag”, and standing beside multiple flags was “dividing our country unnecessarily”.
“We should stand up for who we are, for our values, what we believe in. We are united as a country when we gather under one flag,” Mr Dutton told Sky News last night.
The patriotic armband offered by the LNP is fuelled at the cost of a crippling defence burden which commenced on Scott Morrison’s watch when Peter Dutton was Defence Minister. The incoming Albanese Government in 2022 was presented with an AUKUS deal that brought new strategic ties with both the US and Britain. With the universal endorsement of our military brass and intelligence services, the incoming government could only comply with the conventional strategic wisdom and smooth lobbying operations in the last days of the Morrison Government (David Hardaker for Crikey 4 April 2023).
These critical interpretations are too important to paraphrase. Interested readers might look at this article which introduces the military lobbying agencies involved in promoting acceptance of AUKUS.
The stark realities and costs of AUKUS are reflected in the growth of the Australian defence budgets which are already gross underestimates. Defence spending estimates are already $50.3 billion for 2024-25. I have used the old data because of the good graphical presentations but there are no plateaux ahead in the trendline of current and future defence spending.
The social tensions created by these agendas in a lack-lustre Australian domestic economy are being kept under control by canny communication gurus in the LNP’s preferred political advertising agency, Topham Guerin.
Jason Koutsoukis in the Saturday Morning Paper (7 December 2024) confirms that the federal LNP has hired TG to support Peter Dutton’s campaign in 2025. This will be an emotionally charged campaign.
Expect political debate to be replaced by dreary populist integrating themes to remind voters to support Peter Dutton for Prime Minister in 2025.
This campaigning style from a multinational advertising company will not deliver a government with a real commitment to middle power diplomacy for better economic management at home and a Win-Win peace agenda abroad.
The burdens of militarization have also taken their toll in Taiwan. The far-right Democratic Party lost its majority in the legislative elections on 13 January 2024 while but retaining the Presidency under Lai Cheng-te.
As in most economies, the initial economic rebound from the COVID-crisis has not been sustained in Taiwan as noted by Trading Economics in its percentage data on quarterly GDP trends:
Australia must use its middle power status to urge China to cool tensions in the region by cutting down on our support for freedom of navigation jaunts by military vessels from the US Global alliance in these troubled waters. I am confident that this is being achieved behind the scenes by DFAT’s confident team of negotiators (Texas National Security Review 9 May 2024):
The Never-Ending Sagas of Wars About Uninhabited Rocks
Diplomatic alternatives are always available to improve relationships between China and Taiwan which have close bonds in trade and investment. China and Hong Kong provided 30 percent of Taiwanese exports in 2022 and included exports of electronic components and semiconductor chips. This gave Taiwan a positive trading balance with China.
The commercial partnerships between China and Taiwan extended to investment flows and travel. Air China as a major flag carrier of the PRC serves Taipei Airport. Taiwan’s Eva Air serves Chinese cities like Guangzhou and tourist destinations in Hainan and Hong Kong. All this co-exists with the sabre-rattling of both China and military leaders across the US Global Alliance. Crosscurrents are at work in these troubled waters and further north in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) for control of the uninhabited rocks of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands between China and Japan:
The Taiwanese Government has a positive take on cross-strait investments with China:
Taiwan is one of the biggest investors in China. Between 1991 and the end of December 2022, approved investment in China comprised 45,195 cases totalling US$203.33 billion. In 2022, the value of cross-strait trade was US$205.11 billion.
From 1991 to 2022, more than US$200 billion has been invested in China by Taiwanese companies. In 2020, 31.8% of Taiwan’s foreign investments were invested in China. Much of Taiwanese-owned manufacturing, particularly in the electronics sector and the apparel sector, occurs in the PRC.
With support from the Murdoch Press and its Sky News outlets, pressure is placed on the Australian Government to overlook these positive developments in economic diplomacy to encourage so-called freedom of navigation jaunts by military vessels from the US Global Alliance through the Taiwan Strait (Sky News 3 June 2024 and interview with the Assistant Defence Minister Thistlethwaite):
There’s no doubt that there’s been, there’s been an increased buildup of China’s military capabilities, particularly over the last decade. But we want to maintain peace and security and the status quo within the region. And that’s what the international operations that Australia is a part of are all about, maintaining the rule of law, maintaining freedom of navigation, particularly in the South China Sea, and ensuring that we can maintain that peace and stability into the future.
The recent spring in the stride of the Albanese Government can still be reinforced by more commitment to middle power diplomatic initiatives to cool down regional tensions with support for Win-Win trading and investment initiatives over the conventional wisdom from the Assistant Defence Minister. Reflexive militarization is in no one’s regional interests.
Election of a Petter Dutton government in 2025 will replace these positive developments with more commitment to militarization of the Asia-Pacific Region at more cost to Australian taxpayers. Our naval brass could travel across the Taiwan Strait by a full range of transport options from either China or Taiwan to surveil the troubled waters in a more leisurely fashion from planes and public ferries.
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Sailing the Seas Under the National Sovereignty Flag
Weary of the charades, with emotional pleas,
National sovereignty is being lost at sea.
A Whitlamesque course is still within policy sights,
To illuminate strategic darkness, with renewed Dreamtime Light.
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Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.
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Just one flag, eh Dutts? Well, I’ll mis the Southern Cross and the Commonwealth Star (though not their companion), but if they have to go, they have to go.
Let’s think about how to be scared of others…. let’s be scared of China, how can we stop being scared of China?
China wants to dominate the world right?
Oh dear, in China’s military expansion, how is she challenging the dominance of US and allies?
So looking at the map in the article above, we see that China has a defense capability in the South China Sea. Bordering that there are US bases all along that line…. 80 bases and other facilities in Japan, Camp Humphries in South Korea is the largest overseas US military base, Five airbases in the Philippines… and then the bases in Australia.
I cannot for the life of me understand why the Chinese would be at all concerned about their military, ot their sense of security in the South China Sea.
And then there is Taiwan. It used to be a part of China which is why the deposed government in 1948 was able to settle there. As the article clearly states the Chinese and Taiwanese economies are closely intertwined, so the occasional bit of sabre rattling really only is aimed at conforming that all but politically the two are almost one.
It is when we as a major trading partner of China start scare mongering that things can get a bit testy, as they did under Morrison, and as they may well under Dutton.
Ask the Rock lobster industry, the beef industry, wine…. and more industries what the impact may be on our economy if we decide we don’t like China.
I doubt if more splurging on militarization will win the next election for Anthony Albanese.
Militarism is a real threat to our own security and our democracy at
home .
Militarism through the AUKUS Forum is popular with both sides of Australian politics: AUKUS is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, announced on 15 September 2021.
Check the web site: https://aukusforum.com/aukus/f/arkansas-aukus-more-than-submarines
Have our national sovereignty commitments come in time ?
Simon & Garfunkel warned everyone about the power of emotional framing by professional gurus 60 years ago in Sounds of Silence. The social impact has intensified.
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”
Australia’s military strategies are a joke, given that China represents 25% of our total trade and it spends ten times of what we do on military (USD$ 296B vs 32B).
No matter what we spend on war toys, we are not going to “win” if there is a military skirmish with China. Should we be involved in any military action against them, our trade with them will stop and we will be the loser financially. If you think the supply chain “issues” we have at the moment are bad, imagine zero supplies.
Good comment Fred with your reference to War Toys.
The Australian government’s diplomacy is appalling with infantile attempts to buy off neighbours like PNG and Nauru with token gestures that actually control their own national sovereignty.
The more China cools its relationships with Taiwan, the better for security in the wider region.
By offering gestures to Taiwan, the longevity of the DPP is more and more questionable.
The arrival of Trump and his tariffs might actually provoke a negative reaction from Taiwan itself.
Good news on the diplomatic front: According to CBS News, Mr Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to his presidential inauguration.
Hope that this goodwill is noted in Canberra as the government moves from the old ping pong diplomacy to rugby led controls on PNG.
Emotional framing has intensified. British public opinion loved the expansion of the Empire under Queen Victoria and watched as it spread across Africa with terrible massacres in remote places like Sudan to the delight of Winston Churchill.
Time Magazine nominates Donald Trump as person of the year 2024 – Taylor Swift was a close second as runner-up !
You too could be Person of the Year if you threaten to take healthcare away from 50 million people.
Perhaps If I adopted a sequined bustier and cancelled healthcare cover, I would be a shoo-in !
I believe Adolph Hitler was Time Man of the Year in 1939.
The criteria is not that the person is noted for being particularly good but includes that he or she has a broad influence. Hitler’s influence was world wide, the commencement of WWII and the murder of about 13 million people as a result of his decisions.
Something new Michael, I didn’t need to fill out my name and email address for the post to go through.
How good is that!
Once you’ve logged in, Bert, there’s no need to fill in the details each time.
Bert, you’re being too kind to that Mr Hilter; your 13 million can be upped by 22 million to 47 million to totals around 35-60 million, a figure that includes the ~24 million Russians – civilian & military – who died as a consequence of the Nazi warmongering.
Michael,
“You too could be Person of the Year if you threaten to take healthcare away from 50 million people.”
Or use what may become unfettered power to after any media outlet that doesn’t like The Trumpster and tells lies about him.
Hope that people in the wider community are listen to the plea for less strategic conflict