Piers Akerman: Defence cuts are blowing apart our nation's credibility
Piers Akerman
The Sunday Telegraph
July 22, 2012 12:00AM
You know the advertisement - "even his closest friends won't tell him" - about the deeply personal problem of body odour?
Well, Australia's closest friend, the United States, is publicly telling us that we stink.
In an unprecedented display of candour, the US is saying bluntly that Australia is not pulling its weight on Defence and that the implications of letting down the side in this manner are enormous and long-ranging.
Department of Defence secretary Duncan Lewis was formally told of official US concerns at a painful meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
In this weeks Bolt Report, Andrew Bolt speaks with Maj.Gen.Ret.Jim Molan, who makes clear Australia's perilous position when it comes to defence of the Nation under the Union / Getup funded Rudd/Gillard Labor / Green Loon "Independent" Minority Socialist
"Co Party" Federal government.
He assured the Americans that the Gillard government was committed to building major defence capabilities, such as air warfare destroyers, joint strike fighters and amphibious ships but the US is voicing its doubts.It believes the Gillard government has a serious credibility problem. It has a history of making worthy promises _ and breaking them _ and the US is just as aware of this history as the Australian voters who consistently reject Gillard Labor.
The former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage _ a great friend of Australia who was made a Companion of Australia, our highest honour, just two years ago _ issued the same warning earlier last week but there is no indication the Gillard government is listening.
The human face of the deceitful slashing of the defence budget is to be seen in the Gillard government's withdrawal in the last federal budget of the program under which single servicemen were provided with free flights home at Christmas.
In budgetary terms it's a small saving of $15 million in a budget of approximately $24 billion but 22,000 single men and women will no longer be given the opportunity to be with their loved ones during the holidays.
What is the Australian Labor Government spending OUR money on if not on the defence of our Nation ? listen to above interview between Alan Jones and opposition spokesman Greg Hunt.I am sure our declared enemies are grateful for the assistance of the Labor Green Loon Co Party Government in facilitating the disarmament of Australia
In its usual shift-the-blame manner, Labor argues that the cut was suggested by the secretary of Defence and that the benefit was no longer relevant. But Labor must take responsibility for the travel ban as it was Labor that slashed $5.5 billion from Defence spending in its vain attempt to produce Treasurer Wayne Swan's mythical budget surplus.Liberal MP Stuart Robert, the Opposition shadow minister for Defence science, technology and personnel and Liberal Senator David Johnson, the shadow minister for Defence, have been dogged in their fight to have this benefit restored.
On Tuesday, June 26, Robert tabled a disallowance motion in the House of Representatives which seeks to disallow or block Labor's policy.
Under the house rules, Labor has 15 sitting days from the date of tabling to respond. Four sitting days have passed with no movement from the government side.
Labor has a choice: do nothing and effectively permit the disallowance motion or stand up and defend its policy of cutting recreation leave travel.
So Labor has failed to address an issue that has created uncertainty and a loss of morale in the ranks.
The bigger picture demonstrates a problem of a far greater magnitude. Put simply, crucial forward spending has been postponed. The machine that produces the equipment and technology used by our fighting men and women has been mothballed.
There is no money to buy fuel for our ships and sailors need to be at sea.
There is no money for ammunition, and troops need ordnance to train to survive.
There is no money to develop the systems needed to combat the next generation of IEDs, the roadside bombs that smash our forward troops.
There is no none to replace barracks.
Then there is the impact on industry.
There is only one customer for the sort of sophisticated weaponry that has given our troops a critical edge in their work and the Labor government presented a big shopping list in its 2009 White Paper.
Companies were told to tool up and ramp up production to meet the needs of the armed forces.
Now Gillard and Swan have told the same firms to forget it.
The procurement plan has been slashed by 34 per cent.
The companies which invested can write off 34 per cent of their money, lose 34 per cent of their operations, staff and plant, or close.
As the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Defence budget brief tells it, the Defence budget will fall in real terms by 10.5 per cent next year, the largest year-on-year reductions since the end of the Korean conflict in 1953.
As a result, Defence spending as a share of GDP will fall to 1.56 per cent, the smallest figure recorded since the eve of World War II in 1938.
Stop and think of the lack of preparedness for conflict then and the nations that took advantage of that wilful negligence.
To date, $10.6 billion worth of promised funding from the first five years of white paper has been deferred, $10 billion in savings has been cut from funding promised between 2011 and 2021 and another $2.5 billion of initiatives over the decade have been imposed upon Defence without funding or offsets.
No wonder the US is worried. The nation cannot turn on the Defence machine when its motor is rusted through lack of use.
Our men and women don't get the gear or the equipment they need and they don't get home.
There is always a price for these cuts but Labor is blindly slashing to protect a phony budget surplus for now meaningless political ends.
Andrew Bolt, Bolt Report Parts 2 and 3 July 22 2012
How much longer will the liar in chief Ju LIAR Gillard last?
Everything is John Howard's Fault
