DEFENCE REVIEW:
The latest independent review of Australia’s defence preparedness released yesterday has thrown up some curly questions for the Albanese Government as it balances the huge cost of readjusting the nation’s military preparedness to meet current and emerging threats.
The Bug can report exclusively that the review’s full report – as opposed to the selectively redacted version released publicly on Monday – identifies some longstanding problems for defence planners.
“Chief among the issues identified by the review and detailed in the confidential version of its report is the problem of focussing too much on our northern defences,” a Defence Department source said.
“In recent years all we have heard about is the so-called threat posed by China and its expansionist plans.
“We have been lulled into focusing entirely on our own northern borders and territorial waters and those further afield such as the South China Sea.
“The review itself recommends new tactics to reinforce our northern front. But its confidential report also points out that it is risky to base our entire defence posture on addressing a threat from the north while not looking at what we need to do to repel a threat – or worse, an invasion – from the south.
“It is not unrealistic to suggest that even China may launch a sneak attack via the Southern Ocean or even Antarctica.
“Australians would not feel as secure if they knew that our entire Australian military deployment in Antarctica consists of a penguin formerly from Melbourne Zoo who was given rudimentary weapons training for just a week at Anglesea Barracks in Hobart. (main picture)
“The poor little bugger is all alone down there with a single rifle and needs to keep an eye on a frozen landmass of close to 14 million square kilometres with 30,000 kilometres of coastline.
“He doesn’t even receive proper military pay. Even though he’s nominally a lance corporal he gets paid once a fortnight in fish,” the source said.
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