Ill-disciplined chest-thumping has put war at centre of what’s left of the Australia-China relationship
The Morrison government’s recent indisciplined commentary on the possibility of Australian military engagement in a future US-China war over Taiwan is both politically juvenile and potentially damaging to our core national security interests.
For 50 years, successive Australian governments have not speculated publicly on what Australia would do in the event of a military crisis or conflict over Taiwan. Scott Morrison, Defence Minister Peter Dutton and aspiring defence secretary Michael Pezzullo have spectacularly breached that bipartisan convention over the past fortnight.
So why have Morrison, Dutton and associates publicly signalled “Code Red” over Taiwan? It’s inconceivable that national security agencies in Canberra recommended this as it serves no national interests. Developing detailed, classified diplomatic and military plans for various Taiwan contingencies is prudent strategic planning. Shooting your mouth off about war in the Taiwan Straits is not. In fact, it’s strategically counterproductive.The only conceivable motive is that the government is determined to fight a khaki election, given the vaccine and quarantine programs are a mess,
its credentials with women lie in tatters,
and old faithful “debt and deficit” is now rendered toothless given that debt and deficit figures are seven-times bigger than when Labor left office.
For the Liberals, China is the best camouflage on offer to wedge Labor as a bunch of pro-commie, peacenik appeasers. Never mind that Morrison can’t even speak to Neil Mitchell without confusing Taiwan and Hong Kong; never mind that Morrison as treasurer allowed the sale of the Port of Darwin to the Chinese; and never mind how the Liberals led the charge into war in Iraq to eliminate weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist.Then there’s the worst-kept secret in Canberra: the undeclared leadership battle between Dutton and Morrison, where the former views China as the best vehicle to outflank the latter within the Liberal party room. It’s obscene: playing roulette with our core national economic and security interests with the US, China and Taiwan for pure
