Coalition beats the drums of war but fails to deliver on defence, Labor says
Labor has signalled its determination to take on the Coalition over its perceived electoral strengths of defence and national security, blasting the Morrison government for a “yawning gap” between its talk and action on big military projects.
Brendan O’Connor, the Labor spokesperson for defence, has accused the government of rushing to use “inflammatory” and “provocative” language for domestic political purposes but being “seriously deficient” in delivering the capability the nation needs.
In an essay published this weekend, O’Connor says the first job of national leaders is the safety of their citizens but “beating the drums of war with China, or any other country, does not make us safe”.
“War is both unpredictable and catastrophic and should only ever be a decision of last resort,” O’Connor writes in the latest edition of the John Curtin Research Centre magazine, the Tocsin.
“This is why we should not sit on our hands when we see a government only too willing to politicise national security matters for domestic electoral purposes.”
The comments follow warnings from the defence minister, Peter Dutton, that the risk of conflict with China over Taiwan should not be discounted, and comments from his former top bureaucrat, Michael Pezzullo, that “free nations again hear the beating drums” towards war.
O’Connor argues this elevated rhetoric “does not serve the national interest but rather strengthens the hand of those who would like Australians only to see an inevitable choice between war and capitulation”.
He writes that it also “ignores the fact that what is required at this time is strategic thinking to avoid war, as even acknowledged by the government’s own strategic update” released last year.
“Of course, provocative rhetoric also conveniently diverts attention from the government’s failure to properly manage our very large defence asset contracts, which have seen huge blow outs on timelines and expenditure,” O’Connor says.
“Actions must match words and we know there is a yawning gap in the government’s talk and action on defence. While their language is inflammatory, they are seriously deficient when it comes to delivery of major projects.”
With an election due within a year, and with Scott Morrison repeatedly promoting plans to spend $270bn on defence capability upgrades over 10 years, O’Connor vowed to shine a spotlight on the Coalition’s record on projects such as the $90bn submarine program.
“For all the Coalition’s boasting about defence investment, their many defence ministers have each failed to do their jobs properly and have left multi-billion dollar defence projects to stagnate,” he writes.
“We have a prime minister that likes to literally walk a red carpet in front of the troops for the cameras, but these announcements are chronically followed by issues with delivery. In some cases, projects are stalled and the government uses this as an opportunity to re-announce [them].”
O’Connor says the government has had to renegotiate the submarine deal with Naval Group – the French contractor - “because they failed our Australian defence industry by not security sufficient local content requirements”.
He says the government “should have had a proper tender process and ensured the contract had enforceable local industry content from the start, but instead rushed for a headline with no plan to follow through”.
The government argues the strategic partnering agreement between Australia and Naval Group, which was updated earlier this year, now requires the company to “spend at least 60% of the contract value in Australia over the life of the program”.
But there remains uncertainty over how much of the hull of the first submarine will be built in Australia, with the government seeking technical advice. The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has pledged to ensure transparent, publicly audited, mandatory local requirements on all defence projects.
Morrison is attending the G7 summit in Cornwall, England this weekend but will discuss the submarine project and broader Indo-Pacific defence issues when he meets with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris later in the week.
The first of the 12 new submarines is not due to be fully operational until the mid-2030s. Dutton told The Australian newspaper on Friday he envisaged a need to rebuild all six of the existing Collins-class submarines to extend their life, in a project that may cost between $6bn and $10bn.
In a speech in Canberra on Thursday, Dutton said the new Attack Class Submarines and anti-submarine Hunter Class frigates would be critical assets in what was becoming “a more complex and congested underwater battle space”.
The defence minister signalled a determination to toughen up enforcement of contracts: “I have been clear in my view that the government and Australian people expect commitments
to be met, and where issues arise they need to be dealt with.”
Defending his comments on the risk of war, Dutton said it was “more important than ever that we have a frank and nuanced discussion with the Australian people about the threats we face” as leaders “cannot simply seek to ringfence Australians from complex and difficult issues”.