Andrew Hastie: “It’s time that we took a long, hard look at the assumptions that underpin Anzus.” Photo: Robert Menzies Institute.
Senior Liberal Andrew Hastie has called for a rethink of the Anzus Treaty and Australia’s alliance with the United States, saying there needs to be a rebalance in the national interest.
The shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability delivered the Anzac Oration at the Robert Menzies Institute on Thursday night (23 April), and said Australia has weakened its power through trade-offs with the US.
“I think it’s time that we took a long, hard look at the assumptions that underpin Anzus and the original vision that Menzies had for the alliance,” Mr Hastie said.
A critic of US President Donald Trump and, in particular, the war he started in Iran, the shadow minister said Australia should not expect America to guarantee much except for what is in its own interests.
That means, he said, Australia must grow some teeth and “get serious about our own national security”.
“To put it bluntly, if Anzus is going to continue for another 75 years, we need to invest in our industrial base and our defence force, for we have not seen a President like this before,” he said.
Doubling down that the US relationship has eroded Australia’s sovereign capability, including its defence industry, Mr Hastie said it has cost Australia “strategic freedom of action” in ways that are becoming clear with the Middle East war.
“But I want to briefly focus on the strategic trade-offs we have made in doubling down on our alliance with the United States,” he said.
“For it has cost us sovereign capabilities like a robust defence industry, and our strategic freedom of action in ways that we are now discovering.
“A salient example is our liquid fuel security.
“At the outset of the Second World War, Australia only had two small refineries. One in Sydney, the other in Adelaide.
“By late 1940, Australia was forced into petrol rationing because of the global war at sea. In the post-war era, Australia began to build our refining capacity.
“Four refineries were built from 1954 to 1956, supplying both the east and west coasts of Australia.
“The discovery and extraction of Bass Strait oil in the late 1960s reduced our dependence on imported crude, giving us a degree of energy independence up until the late 1990s.
“But after the Cold War, we embraced globalisation and bet long on the dominance of the United States.
“And we forgot the lessons applied by the generations of Australians who lived the harsh reality of the Second World War. Deindustrialisation swiftly followed.
“Our advanced manufacturing sector collapsed, along with our defence industry and refining capacity. We stopped making complex things of value at scale. We lost our industrial teeth.”
Mr Hastie said Australia’s industrial base was “once a beast”, building its own light bombers, cars, white goods and cargo ships – and paying workers well for it.
Today, productivity is flatlining, real wage growth is declining, and Australia imports almost 90 per cent of our liquid fuels.
“President Trump’s war in Iran is exposing the folly of this national decision that has played out over the last 40 years,” Mr Hastie said.
“That’s why Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is now flying to neighbouring countries to secure our liquid fuel supply.
“We forgot the hard lessons of war, and outsourced our security to the United States.
“But the consequences go beyond industrialisation. It’s weakened our hard power.”
Meanwhile, Mr Albanese has stated he remains willing to host Donald Trump in Australia, saying he would always be welcome in this country, despite emerging tension between Australia and the US over the Middle East war.
Mr Trump has publicly expressed dissatisfaction that Australia has not taken a greater role in the conflict.
The Prime Minister has also publicly criticised some of the language the US President has used during the conflict.
But Mr Albanese told the ABC on Thursday (23 April) that he had had a recent constructive conversation with the President.
“I had the conversation during this conflict with President Trump. It was a good conversation, it was a constructive conversation, as all of mine have been with him,” the PM said.
“An American President would always be welcome in Australia, including President Trump.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
