Jommy Tee has revealed Labor’s contributions to RW American think tanks
Ex-PM, and current MP for Cook, Scott Morrison, is on the CNAS Advisory Board.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) was a previous recipient of one of these grants. Originally, $22m and now sitting at $29m.”
ASPI – A greater threat to Australia than China
The current hysteria in Australia about an imminent Chinese invasion is aligned with ASPI’s interests.
Australia’s Dept of Defence, and the weapon’s manufacturers that sponsor ASPI are relying on this fear and the illogic it breeds, to facilitate an unprecedented expansion of Australia’s military capabilities. More to the point, America’s military capabilities in their Australian province.
Albanese’s neoliberal government is implementing militarist policies antithetical to Labor values. Labor is intent on prioritising American hegemonic goals at great social and environmental cost. It seems no idea to further American interests is off limits to Labor or its “advisors”.
Anthony Bergin: “To strengthen national security, we should no longer shy away from looking at options short of conscription models. This wouldn’t be hard to sell to the Australian people; the time is right.”
Anthony believes the general population have been so thoroughly cowed by the American propaganda disseminated by our domestic media outlets, they’ll accept his absurd “Dad’s Army” ¹ idea as legitimate. He repeats this self-interested appraisal of the population’s willingness to make further sacrifices (to combat an invasion by our main trading partner) in his SMH piece.
“The time for complementary additional solutions is now. There’s an appetite for political leaders to introduce measures to strengthen national resilience.”
Anthony is a former fellow of ASPI, now a senior fellow at Strategic Analysis Australia (SAA). He’s a big fan of more military involvement in domestic security and probably curses the demise of terrorism which provided the necessary societal fear for the Howard government (in partnership with Labor) to circumvent Section 119 of our constitution.
“Amid considerable public controversy, the Australian Labor Party combined with the Government of Prime Minister John Howard to pass military call-out legislation through both houses of the Commonwealth Parliament on 7 September 2000. Less than three months after it was first announced and introduced in the House of Representatives on 28 June, the Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Act 2000 (Cth) came into force on 12 September, when it received royal assent by the Governor-General.
Under the amended Defence Act 1903 (Cth) (the Act), the Federal Government now has the power to call out the armed forces on domestic soil against perceived threats to ‘Commonwealth interests’, with or without the agreement of a state government. Once deployed, military officers can order troops to open fire on civilians, as long as they determine that it is reasonably necessary to prevent death or serious injury. Soldiers will have greater powers than the police in some circumstances, including the right to shoot to kill someone escaping detention, search premises without warrants, detain people without formally arresting them, seal off areas and issue general orders to civilians.” – Michael Head – “The Military Call-out Legislation – some Legal and Constitutional Questions” [2001] FedLawRw 12; (2001) 29(2) Federal Law Review 273
Australia is fertile ground for American propaganda
“Terrorism”, which thankfully never had an iota of the impact of COVID (which we simply ignore) has of course been supplanted by our traditional nemesis the Yellow Peril.
Edmund Barton – Former Prime Minister of Australia: “the doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman”.
ASPI understand the benefits of fear and xenophobia to expand and prioritise military control of this country’s socioeconomic sphere. Yesteryear’s fear of “terrorism” still sees “our” police strolling through malls with assault rifles and driving around suburbia in their American Bearcats. ²
While our governments, ASPI and similar organisations will pay lip service to democratic and multiculturalist values, they are fully aware of the historic hatred, fear and xenophobia they are tapping into, to instill their militarist programs. 3
A cartoon (Editor – retouched) by Phillip May, published in The Bulletin magazine, 1886. National Museum of Australia
Similar caricatures and prejudices were used by the Australian Nationalist Movement in WA
Increased militarism and laws further inhibiting the populace’s freedoms, are classic indicators of encroaching fascism. Case in point, the proposed Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 exempts government and “professional media”. 4
The Bill instead, goes after social media commentators. Coincidentally, people challenging the misinformation and disinformation churned out daily by our governments and “professional media”.
Grant Award View – GA34075-V1 – Department of Defence grant to Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Ltd
The American Think Tanks (funded by weapon’s manufacturers) we’re paying for advice
• Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
What are the chances? Turns out, our strategic circumstances are identical to America’s. Despite being in a different hemisphere and our biggest trading partner being China, our strategic goal too, is preparing for war against China.
“The US Air Force is planning to station nuclear-capable B-52 bombers in Australia. Becca Wasser, the lead war-gamer at the CNAS, stated, “Having bombers that could range and potentially attack mainland China could be very important in sending a signal to China that any of its actions over Taiwan could also expand further.”
“The relatively small Washington D.C. think tank has played a major role in both the Obama and Biden administrations and the shift in US foreign and military policy towards confrontation with Russia and China, increasing the risk of nuclear war.”– Democratic think tank plots war against Russia and China: What is the Center for a New American Security? – Alex Findijs – WSWS
The CNAS’s website states: “During Mr. Morrison’s term as Prime Minister Australian defence spending increased to more than 2% of GDP and he updated Australia’s defence strategy and security posture to address an increasingly assertive China.”
Welcome aboard, fellow militarist Sinophobe.
It’s an amusingly selective Morrison bio presented by CNAS to say the least.
Morrison’s lousy diplomatic skills, that disrupted trade with China enabling the USA to take it, didn’t get a mention.
From – Facing irrational Australia, shouldn’t China be prepared with an iron fist? – Hu Xijin, (editor-in-chief of the Global Times) – China Daily
Nor did his multiple ministries. Not content with just being Prime Minister of Australia, Morrison was also Health Minister, Finance Minister, Home Affairs Minister, Industry, Science and Resources Minister and Treasurer. The secretive and undemocratic nature of his appointments caused some controversy but naturally he was not punished, due to Australia’s ignominious two-tier justice system. Expecting Morrison to be punished for Robodebt (Full report – PDF) when he is nestled under the protective wing of the American eagle is probably a forlorn hope.
CNAS donors (Website)
Grant Award View – GA331202 – Department of Defence grant to Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
• Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA)
This think tank contains more of those twisted minds intent on turning Australia into a launching pad the US military can use to “devastate the Chinese mainland”.
Hopefully, that won’t result in our cities being nuked or otherwise inconvenienced, by Chinese retaliation.
“(The CSBA which) has close ties with the Pentagon, outlined in considerable detail the role that the Australian military and its bases would play in a US war with China. The island continent would be transformed into a vast base to sustain a US blockade of China by controlling key shipping lanes through South East Asia and conducting attacks on Chinese vessels in the Indian Ocean.
It would also function as a protected rear area for the US military as it launched its Air Sea Battle plan to devastate the Chinese mainland. The report detailed what was needed to upgrade northern Australian air bases and the Stirling naval base in Western Australia, as well as the purchases required for the Australian military.” – Australia’s integration into US war plans against China – Peter Symonds – WSWS
CSBA donors (Opens table)
Grant Award View – GA331203 – Department of Defence grant to Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CBSA)
• National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)
The NBR is yet another USA-based think tank promoting US hegemonic supremacy to curtail the ‘China threat’.
NBR publications such as ‘Modernizing Deterrence: How China Coerces, Compels, and Deters‘ | ‘ China’s Digital Ambitions: A Global Strategy to Supplant the Liberal Order‘ and ‘Political Front Lines: China’s Pursuit of Influence in Africa‘ indicate their current fixation.
“Australia and the U.S. must prioritize rapid identification, development, and adoption of new capabilities that give combat advantage and can be consumed, lost, and replaced at low cost to reverse the shifting strategic capability balance with the Chinese military.
If left unchanged, China’s ability to outproduce Australia, the U.S., and other allies and partners will likely give China the advantage in a future conflict – perhaps a decisive one. The force posture for Australian and U.S. forces must become more positive and less reactive to Chinese moves than has been the case for at least the past decade. For Canberra, enabling greater U.S. presence in Australia, along with greater Australian and U.S. presence in the South Pacific, is an achievable goal.
The new AUKUS arrangement is a key symbolic and practical response to Chinese power that begins to shift strategic dynamics in the Indo-Pacific. While the focus has been on the nuclear submarine elements, the more critical and time-sensitive purpose is to accelerate powerful new technologies into the hands of Australian and U.S. militaries well before 2030 and to enable a more dispersed and active regional military posture for the U.S., the UK, and Australia.” – An Australian Perspective on Chinese Military Capabilities by Michael Shoebridge – National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) – Download PDF – Meeting China’s Military Challenge – Collective Responses of U.S. Allies and Partners – Edited Gill Bates (Actual name/person)
These people advise us to pursue an arms race with the USA against China. Proposing we escalate this fraught endeavour, with a more “active” and “positive” (read provocative) military posture and a greater Australian and US presence in the South China sea. The NBR envision Australia purchasing more technologically advanced death machines and even throw in the promise of “future conflict”.
NBR donors (Website)
Grant Award View – GA331203 – Department of Defence grant to National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)
Why are we funding RW militarist Yank Think Tanks?
The USA is the greatest warmonger this planet has ever produced. They have been remorseless in invading, sanctioning and interfering in the sovereign affairs of any country (including Australia) that dared resist their economic ambitions. Their mass killings of civilians and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure, are unconscionable acts of brutality.
These Yank Think Tanks are advising “our” government to indulge in an enormous waste of defence procurement that has little tactical and strategic value in actually defending Australia. Why should Australians accept the social and environmental costs associated with vast military expenditure we have seen play out in the USA? Labor, a party promising tax cuts to our wealthiest, has embraced military spending over socially beneficial projects. This in a country, already suffering an acute reversal in the distribution from the benefits of economic growth.
AUKUS deal: Jim Chalmers announces $8 billion HMAS Stirling naval base expansion By David Weber – ABC
US fires ATACMS during Talisman Sabre 2023 By Nigel Pittaway – Australian Defence Magazine
The USA’s Military Industrial Complex not only profits from war, 5 it wields enough power to start them. The predatory Think Tanks Labor is paying for advice – are their voices.
But when the sky darkens
And the prospect is war
Who’s given a gun
And then pushed to the fore
And expected to die
For the land of our birth
When we’ve never owned
One handful of earth? 6
Notes
1 The Right Wing mindset must never be allowed to take full control of our society. Anthony Bergin’s self-serving irrationality is only surpassed by Bob Katter’s. His son-in-law imports guns and Katter receives donations from gun distributors.
“Independent MP Bob Katter has proposed a mass armament plan to proliferate rifles among Australian schools in a bid to defend Australia from what he described as an existential threat. The wily veteran MP said the increasingly threatening environment in the Indo-pacific required a mandate for all secondary school-aged children to take-up arms.” Bob Katter calls for guns for all 13-year-old Australian school children to form militia and combat against ‘existential’ threat – Tyrone Clarke – Sky News
2 I’m so old, I remember stopping work on-site and pulling my co-workers into the smoko shed every time Adelaide police arrived carrying their recently issued sidearms. It was a safety issue then and remains so. Except now, it’s assault rifles and amoured vehicles.
3 Despite Dingo News being exempt from this Bill, we still find it distastefully undemocratic.
4 Just my conversations with my fellow country-people are enough to see how that latent anti-Asian feeling is surfacing due to COVID origin stories and China “invasion” propaganda. WA in the eighties showed how easily these old hates are stirred up again.
5 Pentagon spending has totaled over $14 trillion since the start of the war in Afghanistan, with one-third to one-half of the total going to military contractors. A large portion of these contracts – one-quarter to one-third of all Pentagon contracts in recent years – have gone to just five major corporations: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman. Four of the past five U.S. Secretaries of Defense came from one of the top five arms contractors. – Profits of War: Corporate Beneficiaries of the Post-9/11 Pentagon Spending Surge – (Full report)
6 The Workers’ Song – A Song by Ed Pickford.
