Thread by @hannibal_i_

@bruce_haigh So here is my take on how our defence has been hijacked in Australia. Ten years ago, Australia invited many countries to tender for military equipment supply including fighter jets, helicopters and submarines. 1/

@bruce_haigh 2/ My understanding was that Japan won the tender and if Australian government had proceeded, we would already have fit-for-purpose subs in operation and closer cooperation with Japan, a regional partner in the Pacific.

@bruce_haigh 3/ But with the Liberal National parties in government, military hardware procurement has been hijacked by the USA. The worst possible situation developed with Morrison becoming PM and with the help of Australia’s #1 warmonger David Hurley, granting himself multiple ministerial

@bruce_haigh 4/ powers to sidestep all political and democratic processes related to Australia’s defence. Seemingly out of nowhere, #ADF abandoned the people of Afghanistan including their local support staff resulting in hundreds of deaths and a complete victory to ISIS after

@bruce_haigh 5/ 20 years of involvement, the only country coming out smelling of roses was USA after stealing Afghan’s sovereign assets and destroying what was left. Then the French submarine contract was breached by the Australian government wasting billions of dollars.

@bruce_haigh 6/ During this time, Morrison was meeting regularly with US diplomats connected to their arms manufacturing while the Australian political rhetoric was shifting from ‘China good’ to ‘China bad’ resulting in China imposing trade sanctions that killed billions of dollars of

@bruce_haigh 7/ Australian export trade. But it all worked out well for USA which picked up Australia’s export losses.
#AUKUS seemed to come out of nowhere. This was Morrison’s finest moment.

@bruce_haigh 8/ He single-handedly sold out Australian Defence to USA without any public or parliamentary scrutiny. Not only has Australia lost every means to defend itself, the USA have secretly arranged to build nuclear submarine bases in the north of Australia which will be used against

@bruce_haigh 9/ our Asian and pacific neighbours. This does nothing but heighten military and political instability in our region.

@bruce_haigh 10/ Morrison has committed over $270B for purchases of offensive USA arms hardware and at the same time ensuring that Australia will be used in proxy wars against countries in our region that don’t align with USA economic interests (translation: ‘Rules-based order’).