- by William Briggs
- The Guardian
- Issue #2124
Long-range Naval Strike Missiles and Joint Strike Missiles to be manufactured in Australia with Norway’s Kongsberg Defence. Photo: Kongsberg (CC BY 4.0)
Pat Conroy, Australia’s Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery, has delivered a disturbing speech to the National Press Club. It was akin to a Party election broadcast. It celebrated every dollar spent by the Albanese government in its campaign to militarise Australia. It poured scorn on Dutton for not pledging more money and resources. It talked up the idea of a ‘sovereign Australian defence industry.’ Billions of dollars will be pumped into the ‘industry.’ The speech looked forward to a ‘khaki-election’ campaign speech.
Conroy warned that “these are troubling times” and that “we face the most challenging strategic outlook since the Second World War,” as though Australia has nothing to do with the threat. In fact, Australia’s blind adherence to American foreign policy has created the capacity for threat and confrontation.
The minister admitted that the “strategic competition between the United States and China is a primary feature of Australia’s security environment.” An independent foreign policy would immediately obviate this challenge.
There are no cogent arguments to support the claim that Australia is in any way threatened. There are no rational voices arguing that even in the event of a war between the USA and China, Australian territory would have to be under attack, or occupied. This country is already occupied by US forces, bases, aircraft, and marines. Sovereignty is a fading memory.
STRAW MAN
The straw man of our dangerous ‘environment’ has become government policy. Conroy declared that that’s why the Labor government is “making record investments to deliver the men and women of the Australian Defence Force the capabilities they need to defend our nation and help make our region more secure. It is why we are investing record amounts to grow a sovereign Australian defence industry, including spending more than $22 billion on domestic capability acquisition and sustainment last financial year.”
The spending does not stop there. The Albanese government has, in the minister’s words, “adopted a Defence Industry Development Strategy that commits to developing a sovereign ability to produce, maintain, repair, and overhaul select weapons.” This means the commitment of an additional $75 billion over the next decade for “targeting and long-range strike, missile defence, and our new guided weapons and explosive ordnance initiatives.”
He spoke with pride of how the ALP government is embarking on the “biggest increase in Australian missile capabilities in history.”
The purchase of missiles, missile delivery systems and long-range strike capacity is very much in the ‘strategic’ thinking of Conroy, Marles and the rest. Even more important is the establishment of the facilities, the factories, the joint partnerships with other nations in order to build these weapons here. Preparations for war become ‘industry policy.’ Any rational being might think that socially useful production is a better option for re-booting a manufacturing industry. That is not the way that the government, as a loyal ally of the USA, sees things.
The Labor government focuses so closely on an ability to “project force” far beyond our national borders, and still calls it “defence.”
Conroy treated his audience to a history of the missile, from Hitler’s VI and V2 rockets, to the present, in an attempt to drive home the importance of these weapons and why our military must have them in abundance.
The Navy will be getting more than 200 Tomahawk missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometres before the end of this year. “Australia,” the minister gushed, “will be only the third nation to have them, after the United States and the United Kingdom.”
The Airforce will be getting Extended Range missiles that can strike highly defended targets at ranges of up to 900 kilometres.
The army will be equipped with “Precision Strike Missiles, which will initially have a range of 500 kilometres, with future development taking it out to 1,000 kilometres.”
Conroy asked “what does it all add up to?” He answered his own question. “More missiles, … with longer range, greater stealth, and higher sophistication.”
The Australian government, is pumping billions into the promotion and manufacture of these weapons systems on behalf of its US sponsor. As Conroy said “We can work closely with our ally, the United States, and with other key partners in the Indo-Pacific, such as Japan and the Republic of Korea – partners that share our concerns and are prepared to strengthen cooperation in support of shared interests.” On the one hand, talk up a nationalist line for a domestic market and on the other, reaffirm our subservient role to the USA.
There is really no contradiction here. Australia is being encouraged to play a more obvious role in US imperialism. The procurement of long-range missiles serves this end. Conroy describes this as “critical to denying any potential adversary’s attempt to project power against Australia through our northern approaches.” This returns us to the straw-man argument of a threat to our shores, and the desire to build an arms industry.
Australia, the minister informed his audience, has not been manufacturing these weapons, so we are “dependent on imports for these critical national security capabilities.”
Conroy, Marles and the rest of the Albanese government are arguing that there must be a combination of being armed by our allies and providing arms. There is a desire to “grow our national munitions and missile stockpile, while building the industrial base to manufacture guided weapons and explosive ordnance in this country.”
The minister is pleased that progress is being made in this area, preparing for a threat we help to create. The people of the region, were not featured in the speech. Conroy didn’t explain the price, in taxes and missed opportunities, the working class will pay.
