Paying for Australia's you beaut nuclear powered submarines that are sure to arrive before 2055 will help keep the federal govt budget in deficit, help keep it mired in debt and maintain pressure to cut health, education and welfare.
it will be a tremendous ongoing, in practical terms read permanent, weight on the govt just so former PM Scotty Morrison, by any measure the worst in Australia's history, could get a pat on the head from his hero, US president Felonius Dump.
it didn't have to be like this as Percy Allan, a former senior NSW official and academic, pointed out in an essay published August 3 and entitled "America's war machine: Unless Australia acquires nuclear weapons, why acquire AUKUS subs?". the essay was published in Pearls & Irritations, John Menadue's Public Policy Journal.
one option Allan pointed to came in at a fraction of the cost of the AUKUS white elephants and seems more focussed on Australia's national interest than America's.
here is how Percy Allan put it:
"Canada recently decided to buy 12 modern electric-diesel powered submarines for an estimated US$44 billion (versus US$ 268-$368 billion for Australia’s 8 Virginia Class and AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines) since its focus is on patrolling its own vast coastline not that of distant nations."
bellcurve again. Successive Australian govts have sold out their country at enormous expense to us in order to snuggle up to the world's pre-eminent warmongering nation - America.
in their conspiracy of treason against Australia's interest, they haven't or can't even make out a strategic case for these AUKUS white elephants.