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| Australian F/A-18 Super Hornet |
CAMERON STEWART
FOR several months the Gillard government has been trying to work out how best to sugarcoat a historic strategic retreat in Australia's defence policy.
Yesterday it used all the props it could find -- maps, flags and a stern-faced Prime Minister -- to convey the impression the nation's defence remains uppermost in the minds of this government.
As evidence, it promised to bring forward the next defence white paper by 12 months to 2013; it released a new report on force posture; and it promised seed funding for the new submarine project.
But yesterday's series of announcements, which included admissions of big budget cuts, are a game-changer for defence policy which -- unless reversed by an Abbott government -- will herald an era of austerity not seen since the Hawke-Keating era.
Barely three years since it launched the 2009 white paper with much fanfare, promising the largest peacetime expansion of the navy in Australia's history and 3 per cent real growth in defence spending until 2018, Labor's grand plan is all but dead.
Read the full story at The Australian