What a week! Two major events have overturned Australia’s security outlook dramatically for the worse. The first is the US throwing Ukraine under the bus and siding with Russia. What has been done to Ukraine is an absolute disgrace and it can be done to Australia – and don’t think for a moment it couldn’t happen. The attempt to extort 50% of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals for equipment already supplied is outrageous. But our political leaders are completely mute about US conduct, so terrified of uttering a single word that might upset the Trump administration. It is moral cowardice at its worst. We are on our own – and the UK has pulled the plug on AUKUS. To add to that we have had Chinese warships operating in the Tasman Sea as a blatant show of force. It was inevitable that this would happen at some point. Australian Defence planners need to stop obsessing with the South China Sea and worry about places much closer to home.

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