Firstly, congratulations to the federal government on picking the Japanese Mogami-class frigates as our replacement for the old Anzac-class, which are well past their use-by date. We will actually get the first three by 2029, built in Japan, with the remaining eight to be built in WA — unless we can’t get our act together in time, in which case they will continue to be built in Japan until we can. Common sense is prevailing at last in terms of our defence acquisitions!
These ships seem much better than their German rivals and also help cement a developing Japan–Australia alliance. Given the issues with AUKUS, I reiterate my suggestion that we should also buy some Soryu-class subs to tide us over until the AUKUS sub comes on stream in the 2040s.
Whilst on defence matters, reports in the Weekend Australian suggested that the US Defence Department is ramping up its campaign to get us to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence, up from 2% at present. Albo needs to pluck up the courage to see Trump and sort this out. Helpful hint, Albo: it will cost you, but it’s money well spent. I’d suggest increasing the GST from 10% to 12.5% or even 15% to help pay for it, and/or revising the NDIS or stopping subsidies for renewables (I thought they were meant to be the cheapest form of energy, so surely they don’t need new subsidies). If you did so, we could manage the 3.5% on our ear!
One thing we don’t need is to destroy our World Heritage national parks in the Blue Mountains by building several hundred 300-metre-plus-high wind turbines — that’s turbines the length of three football fields put together. I thought our push to build renewables was meant to save our environment, not destroy it.
I was also most concerned to see about 100,000 “useful idiots” (including members of my family) walk across the Harbour Bridge on Sunday 3 August, mindlessly supporting the immediate, unconditional recognition of a Palestinian state that doesn’t yet exist or satisfy any of the criteria set out by the UN for statehood. The NSW Police also got the rough end of the pineapple in terms of the duty judge they went before. Her Honour proved to be a true judicial activist in allowing the application by a well-known Trotskyite demonstrator to be granted, despite the strenuous opposition of the NSW Police.
Her Honour seemed to disregard safety concerns and the fact that the NSW Crimes Act makes it a criminal offence to hinder traffic on the Harbour Bridge, as well as breaching the NSW Traffic Act. She also seemed ignorant of the fact that the Sydney Domain could easily hold 100,000 or more protestors in the middle of Sydney without breaching any laws.
Finally, I think Israeli PM Netanyahu is making a big mistake in sending the IDF in to take over the rest of Gaza — against the advice of the IDF and senior people in Mossad and the rest of the Israeli intelligence community. He should listen to the experts.
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