dwuuuu i like the entirely justified criticism of the AUKUS nuclear subs fiasco on financial grounds.
ordinary taxpayers will cop it in the neck from every which way because of this massive debt-funded addition to the federal budget.
Australia will take a haircut on every sub. These are sold to the US Navy now for a little over US$4 billion, more than A$6 billion each.
do the sums on 8:subs and then wonder how the upper limit on the price band is pencilled in at A$368 billion. I think they saw Scotty coming and willing to pay anything for a pat on the head from Donald Duck.
the cost of the subs will squeeze other parts of the govt budget: education, health, welfar and culture like never before.
@twouptom says the subs will make Australia a target if America chooses to start a hot war
But the subs merely confirm its existing target status courtesy of Pine Gap, Northwest Cape and the 2014:Force Posture Agreement we signed with the US allowing them to use Australian land for any military purpose they choose, hence the massive build up in the NT of men, materiel and bases.
even with all the above the main problem with the subs decision is that neither govt has been able to articulate any need for them militarily and strategically. Apparently it's in th our intrest for our biggest ever defence purchase to be little more than a unit of US forces, like most of the ADF already.
haven't we come a long way from when the previously black dogged trade minister Andrew Robb signed off on the sale of a long term on Darwin Port to a Chinese company in 2016. One wonders if the black dog was seen after Robb took a nearly million dollar consultancy with the Chinese company soon after.
okay, Labor in opposition was ambushed by Scotty being given just 24 hours to yay or nay AUKUS. It's almost impossible to believe the weak Labor leadership has spent the last 2+ years building up the AUKUS offensive alliance.
Labor is pissweak and the AUKUS catasrophe is what happens when you outsource foreign policy and diplomacy to the US-infiltrated rats nest of Australia's defense establishment.
