Paul Keating is right:
Paul Keating has lashed this week’s AUKUS decision as the worst by a Labor government since Billy Hughes introduced conscription during World War I, but his view has been repudiated, including by former colleague Kim Beazley, who oversaw the construction of the Collins Class submarines.
In a firebrand appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, the former Labor prime minister accused Anthony Albanese and his “seriously unwise” Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles of “screwing into place the last shackle the United States has laid out to contain China”.
Correct. AUKUS is a very serious compromise of our sovereignty. And?
The alternative is to pretend we can be neutral and, in reality, get owned by China with all that entails. Including the end of free speech and media, the rise of a mega-bribed collaborating elite, and gulags in the Pilbara for the divergent.
Basically precisely where we were headed before 2017 and the emergence of the great Australia/China schism. See the 14 conditions to end democracy.
Or, we can dedicate ourselves to being a functional satrap within the US liberal empire with all of the freedoms that entails.
Eight lousy submarines is a token gesture, despite the huge price tag. They are militarily meaningless.
But the development of Australia as the “tip of the spear” pointed by the US at China is real. And inevitable. Given our geographical and ideological position.
If that strategy fails for whatever reason then we will be dominated by China instead. So what do we have to lose?
Few nations like to admit such subservience to themselves, as both halves of this debate show.
But that’s the real politik of our situation.
