The current threat of attack against Australia has reached a point where U.S. authorities are treating it as the “frontline” of competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), says former Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Kim Beazley.
The former Labor Party and opposition leader said that the previous timeframe for a potential attack on Australia had narrowed—from 15 years to zero—and this left the country in its worst position strategically since the two World Wars.
“We need to not only look east-west, which is how they normally look, but we also need to look north-south. So now they’re interested in all the Australian facilities.”
“Because we are frontline because we are capable, because we are doing things like joint research with the Americans and the British, we are massively an intelligence target,” he added, saying Australia was subject to cyber and human espionage, something the domestic spy chief Mike Burgess has alluded to.
Nuclear Submarine Announcement Due in March
The three leaders of the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom are set to meet in March to announce how Australia will be armed with nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS agreement.AUKUS was announced in September 2021 by the then-leaders of the three countries to effectively create a bulwark against CCP military aggression in the Indo-Pacific (although the nation’s leaders did not explicitly name China).
AUKUS formalised existing partnerships between the nations and pledged to streamline collaboration in fields like quantum computing, undersea capabilities, hypersonic weapons, and cyber technology.
However, the centrepiece of AUKUS is the sharing of U.S. nuclear propulsion technology with Australia, something that had happened only once before, in 1958, when the United States shared the tech with the UK.
The successful arming of Australia will effectively tip the power balance of the Indo-Pacific.
Yet there are concerns around the timeframe of when the first submarine will actually be delivered and whether the industry can keep up with such demand. Another concern has been whether Australia is tied into military engagements with the U.S. and UK.
“We make our own decisions on whether we go to war and when we don’t,” Beazley said. “But you also need to comprehend that when you choose to have allies when you choose to benefit from the intelligence they provide, and deliver it yourself as well, your best defence is to be in harmony with them.”
No Concerns for Former PM Rudd in US Ambassador Role
Meanwhile, Beazley conceded that the appointment of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the post of the Australian ambassadorship to the United States would be a “challenge” for the former leader.“The thing about the job in the U.S. is it’s very much a nuts-and-bolts job. It’s very much about making sure things work. It’s not about the big stance, it’s not about the great projection of the objectives of the nation,” he said.
“That is a matter for [Foreign Minister] Penny Wong, [Defence Minister Richard] Marles, and the prime minister. They do that; you don’t. What you do is make sure everything works.”
Beazley said Rudd would be up for the challenge and would be tasked with negotiations around how to get U.S. personnel into Australian facilities, the terms and conditions, and pouring over the details of the nuclear submarines.
“It’s a nuts-and-bolts job. I found it humbling. I’ve been a minister and deputy prime minister, and ambassadors are way below,” he said. “You’re just a cog in a massive policy development wheel—an important cog—but no more than that.”
