I won't bother posting any links to media reports about the Australian governments recent announcement regarding its submarine policy and related purchase agreements, so as to not taint the discussion with one media slant vs another.
My view - I with Paul Keating on this and think that this is a really bad decision on any number of fronts.
The costs are huge. I know we are talking decades away, but that just means we are only really guessing what the actual costs will be. As well as somehow finding the money for this, it likely means that funding for other things is likely to be detrimentally impacted (e.g. social housing, health, education, environment, etc.)
Do we actually need submarines? Most dialogue is around the "threat" from China, but I can't really think of any reason why China would engage in a war with Australia, or with our closest neighbours. I've seen reports that suggest China probably won't even push to take over Taiwan, given the perceived global effects of doing that.
As we wait decades for the submarines to be built and delivered, we are apparently to host US nuclear submarines as a stop-gap measure. I'm pretty sure that is against our nuclear-free Pacific treaty obligations and, if you believe China would be aggressive in the future, make us a nuclear target.
We will apparently need to deal with nuclear waste in the future.
Fact of the matter is if people are thinking there is no country / government out there that may not be tempted to invade another country, they would be wrong. Just because a lot of countries are starting to get along better or at least realise that War and invasion is not the answer, that doesnt mean there arent governments out there that are still run like dictatorships and Egos out there that want to set a legacy before they lose their position of power. People for the longest time thought Russia would never invade another country and yet…
After the whole mess with HK and the big exodus of people from there to countries like Singapore after China started throwing its power around HK. I think China will definitely have its eyes set on other countries sometime in the future. Especially if they are unable to gain control through corruption of the government and buying out ports / lands etc then they may have to resort to other methods. Sometimes having something even if it cant win an all out war, at the very least can act as a deterrent and ideally will make the invading country think twice.
While we all worry about gender identity and offensive jokes and pronouns, there are countries out there watching us and laughing at where our priorities sit.