Australia’s Back-Stabbing Diplomacy. (Updated)

 

“It’s really a stab in the back. We had built
a relationship of trust with Australia, this
trust is betrayed”, Jean-Yves Le Drian,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Scotty from Marketing announced yesterday as a fait accompli that he decided to breach the $90 billion contract signed with France’s Naval Group for the construction of 12 conventional submarines and instead purchase an unspecified number of nuclear subs from an as yet unspecified Anglo-American consortium, at an equally as yet unspecified cost … to be delivered God only knows when (because the bloody delivery dates are, you guessed, unspecified: this just keeps getting better and better).

And, if you believe Andrew Probyn, in a nominally democratic nation, he and his henchmen and -women may have been cooking up that deal in secret for months, while pretending to be in a partnership with France. You know what double-crossing means, don’t you?

I won’t deal with the strategic implications of this (What is it the Yanks want from Oz after this deal? How will our neighbours react?). I can’t even answer much more mundane questions, like has Australia the logistic infrastructure to handle that kind of boats? Although when it comes to dismiss social spending – much, much cheaper than those fucking subs – Morrison and his lackeys go all “how are you gonna pay for that?” as a broken record (that’s you, Barnaby “Chinless Wonder” Joyce), I won’t ask that. I won’t comment, either, on the terrible record Australian big military purchases have (from the currently used Collins class subs, to the flying lemon F-35A II Lightning, now to the French subs scuttled before their maiden voyages) all of which end up under-performing, being delivered with much delay and at a price much higher than their already astronomical original prices. While the French are mightily pissed off at that, I don’t really care much about their loss, so I won’t dwell on that either (but I hope they do care and sue the Commonwealth for all it is worth and that Australia gained in them a stubborn and unforgiving adversary in incoming negotiations).

I ain’t qualified or even particularly interested in that at the moment. As an Aussie, what I really care is that Australia has demonstrated once again, this time in a truly spectacular fashion, that it can’t be trusted to fulfill her international commitments.

And within 45 days Australia will be taking part in negotiations much more important than some overpriced, almost surely useless and counterproductive piece-of-shit subs. The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) is due to begin on November 1st. I repeat, within 45 days. That’s the elephant in the room local commentators cannot see: arguably our last chance at avoiding climate chaos. There, credibility, honour, generosity and good will or just basic human decency will be crucial.

Morrison’s Australia cannot offer that. Those words don’t exist in his vocabulary, his mind cannot grasp those notions. It has been reported that Gladys Berejiklian (an important leader in Morrison’s own party) says of Scott Morrison that he is an “evil bully”; at a minimum she should have added that he’s petty and grubby and shameless. The future of all of humankind is in the hands of this dishonest, mendacious, duplicitous, cynical, unscrupulous bunch, who will be representing Australia.

The three riders of Apocalypse. The three sinister stooges.(source)

When it comes to the environment and underhanded trickery, Morrison has plenty form. Now, on top, one finds that one can’t trust the senile Yank and the buffoonish Pom either. Our last hope is that the Europeans – and particularly the French – won’t forget Morrison’s stab in the back.

As a working class Aussie, I don’t trust Morrison. Can the members of his poor Pacific nations “family” trust that rich relative?

Like a pathogen, Australian presence in Glasgow will only soil and infect the negotiations. Mark my words.

 

Update:

17/09/2021. After the double-crossing was revealed in all its enormity, nothing better than having a real-life hick, seemingly out of Wes Craven's 1977 The Hills have Eyes, digging Australia deeper in the hole, just as Scotty from Marketing tries to assuage the French, calling them “important partners in the Pacific”.

(source)

This is the Australian Minister for Defence

Peter “Not a Monster” Dutton (source)

See more photos. It’s not just their bastardry, is their arrogance, incompetence, lack of common sense and stupidity.