#marles — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #marles, aggregated by home.social.
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[edited for typos]
Weighing in again about #AUKUS. This is a vew expressed by Senator Raff Ciccone -- who chairs the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security -- which tends to be more informative then the brush-offs #Marles is famous for. The author's support for #AUKUS (with new info towit: the 2nd hand SSN will have <20 years of service life left in them when handed over) is based on geopolitical circumstances and Australia's strategic requirements. It's worth a read. And no, the Senator does not address the issue of sovereign capabilty primarily because he does not see there is an issue there to discuss (I'm reading between the lines here). Whatever the future holds for the UK-Australian designed AUKUS Class SSN, the interim US SSN will more that deliver their tonnage in weight of deterrence imo.
PS. While I am anti-war, I am not opposed to funding and building an effective military deterrence.
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@ElectricTrike
The first four paragraphs are spot on and hence I concede that the #AUKUS Tier One deal needs to be reviewed and perhaps renegotiated into something that is a lot more than ‘possibly’ deliverable. Further, and more importantly, I opine that a Plan B (grounded in the commercially probable) needs to be thought out and acted on — there are alternatives.As for the rest of the good Senator’s thinking, it’s mostly extrapolation based on publicly available information and the govt’s stated strategic objectives (except for the storing of nuclear waste if, and it’s a big IF, the US ends up dumping it here which is unlikely given the US is kinda iffy about nuclear fuel, spent/repurposed, reprocessed or indeed enriched). Those strategic objectives btw are not carved in stone and will vary with time.
Shoebridge also engages in conjectures lacking relevant information (due to classifications). He does draw a long bow towards the end of the piece.
Nevertheless, I commend the #Greens Senator for keeping the public discourse on AUKUS alive despite #Marles ‘ best efforts to play down the whole debacle as : “steady she goes”. If the truth be known, the good ship lollipop is anything but.
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If I haven’t made it plain before, I have certainly left enough clues in the past as to what ought to be discussed about #AUKUS and what ought best be left for those with the appropriate expertise to deliberate and inform.
Clearly, the main public gripe about #ScottyFromMarketing ‘s big dirty deal concerns costs. Any discussion of our reliance on the #US #Alliance (a secondary gripe) needs not be conducted solely from the AUKUS perspective because it is not the wherewithal of that alliance.
But to be more specific, AUKUS must be evaluated from the perspective of stated core requirements addressing the latest Strategic Review and the military tasks/missions which fall out of it.
If the public needs/wishes to debate our defence spending and access to classified documents on the matter is not possible, it must fall back to critique the strategic review itself, the steering document for every Defence acquisition. Everything about defence emanates from that document.
Ergo, IMO, the current community enquiry is wasting its time if it reviews anything else but the source of all defence requirements as it lacks expertise (and time) to deal with the work that eventually lead to submarine warfare scenarios and the evalluation of platform Vs requirements before any discussion can focus on the AUKUS deal. Focusing on AUKUS is like talking about the water coming out of the tap as the source of all its contaminents.
And this is why, having tuned to the enquiry just now, I quickly stopped watching it. What is it really trying to achieve? I found it a useless waste of time…and a political stunt at best. It will not inform the public. It will sow confusion as petty interests are platformed. It will generalise a mountain of processes and deduce nothing useful from it. It will further divide public opinion on AUKUS, claim success on the back of emotive reactions to biased platforming and stoke further clueless Column inches.
I sincerely hope that I am wrong about this, truly, I am. But the odds are stacked up against it.
Think about it… #Marles is fully briefed on AUKUS, but what we publically hear from the Minister is spin, platitudes, obfuscation and misdirection when he tells us anything about the SSN deal. He is not a complete idiot. He does this for a reason. Ask yourself then, what is the reason(s) which compel a sitting Minister to gamble his political career on remaing tight lipped about that particular defence acquisition?
#AusPol #AUKUS #SSN #PublicInquiry #Defence #StrategicReview #USAlliance #DefenceProcurement #UK #US #ProjectRequirements #DefenceTenders #PublicOpinion
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CW: Puns not intended
Good, on the surface this looks like the ADF are finally wising up on how future wars will be waged, and how not to put our mariners at risk, but it also looks like face-saving announcement after repeated attacks on the wisdom of #AUKUS
And Minister #Marles we've heard the 'will be built locally' bollocks before 🤦♂️
#defense #submarines #Australia
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-10/ghost-shark-underwater-drone-fleet-plan/105758720 -
I do my best to watch the first QT of a new #Parliament. I did so today, and while the House was better behaved than in the past — a reflection of the polies’ ability to learn and adapt — I was unfortunately confronted with an #LNP in #Opposition still stuck in the bad old days, asking for Y/N answers to smarmy and erronious questions in order to elicit some ‘gotcha’ moments. Some polies never learn and are doomed to fail in adapting to new political realities. Surprised? No, but I wanted to be.
The overall comedic effect was more than helped along with #AngusTaylor ‘s debut (as LNP Shadow Minister for Defence) and his ill-conceived (or ill-informed or both) indignation at the PLA Navy circumnavigation of the continent — how dare they do to us what we do to them in international waters. That it was a ridiculous question is supported by the facts that this issue was discussed to death in the press and commented on by the govt when it occured and that this was not the first circumnavigation of Australia by the #PLANavy . I could say: “Do better Angus’ but I doubt he could.
One question stood out. #Marles was asked about a recent purchase of Russian oil by Australia. A question never answered. Marles’ obfuscation was plain and obvious to all. He barely filled his allotted time with repeats of support for #Ukraine.
Ah well, we have three years to get use to the agonising death of the LNP #Coalition. Not before time either.
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The Australian government has announced a new $100m assistance package for #Ukraine, which includes munitions and military equipment, during a visit to the country by the deputy prime minister, Richard #Marles.
#Australia’s package will include $50m in military assistance, including $30m towards uncrewed aerial systems, and $15m towards other high-priority equipment such as combat helmets, rigid hull inflatable boats, boots, fire masks and generators.
