Thread by @iMusing

good morning☀️happy Sunday! Today on #Insiders are ABC 730 senior politics corro Laura Tingle, 9fax (smh/Age) international editor Peter Hartcher and murdoch foreign editor Greg Sheridan. The interview is with deputy PM and defence minister Richard Marles.

opening spiel: defending Australia, helping the US, is China a threat. #Insiders

we will not get our first nuclear submarine for a decade? A few decades? Speers repeats “defend strike” sloganeering, repeats the job spruiking from the government. Coalition warmongering is “bipartisanship” while facts from Keating are Labor disunity. #Insiders

the montage is all war hardware. Killing machines. “China has accused” us of joining an arms race so now we have facts from Keating and “China”! Goodness. Handing out money is not foreign policy, Keating tells #NPC #Insiders

#MakingNews 9fax says the defence minister says nuclear submarines are a deterrent. The #Utopia logic is aired. A US fighter accused of helping China has been moved to max security prison at Lithgow. #Insiders

the Speers editorial is respectability politick. Keating got “many offside” by saying mean things. We know, David. The “many” (press gallery journalists, a tiny cohort) have not shut up about their feelings all week. #Insiders

everything Keating said was completely crackers, says very normal Sheridan, who hangs up on and storms out on women journalists at the ABC. #Insiders

apparently our nations interest is radically compromised by Chinese border incursions in south central Asia or something idk I can not follow Sheridan logic #Insiders

protecting our trade routes. Drink. #Insiders

here he is. We need to break out of our fantasy sub mindset says the pompous sinophobe. Australia has allowed degrading of our capability. The threat has increased, says Hartcher. The hostile great power is the Peoples Republic of China, he says. #Insiders

“trade as a weapon” says Hartcher. The #Utopia thesis. As Keating explained to Knott, tariffs are not military threats. #Insiders

clip of chief ASPI war monger on the podcast hosted by Professor Kenny. No peace scholars were interviewed. No balance on this story as usual. #Insiders

Sheridan wants to join the pissing contest. White is misrepresenting things but not as egregiously as Keating, he says. Pine Gap gets a run. A bizarre speculative line about defending our own interests or US interests or not. #Insiders

it is about our strategic decision to align ourselves with America more than ever before, says Tingle. It almost does not matter whose tech is used. During the Iraq invasion a RAN ship was redirected by the US, apparently. #Insiders

the 9fax red scare series. How realistic? Is it alarmist or responsible outlook? Speers asks Hartcher. It is not the tech as Greg said, says Peter, ignoring that Tingle said this too. Ohhhh it is the *political psyche*. Sounds like a pub test. Or likeability. #Insiders

they were just asking questions (abbr) Hartcher says, of the screaming 9fax front pages, and believe they did the right thing. The Bevan defence. #Insiders

they were all hawks tho says Tingle. Not at all, says Hartcher. Sheridan names a bunch of hawks who say there is a credible threat of war. Of war IN TAIWAN says Tingle. This is not a state we recognise. Both sides both sides says Speers (abbr) #Insiders

he called you a psychopath an acid drop and a maniac, Soeers says to Hartcher of Keating. Blokey blokey bloke bloke. How do you feel? Hartcher has feelings, and a daughter. Oh well then. #Insiders

lmao Speers asks Tingle how she, Tingle, thinks Keating on Wong “went down”. Like a cup of cold sick, says Tingle. But here are the issues. What is the nature of the threat from China? Is it Taiwan? Is it trade routes. We have not had the conversation, she says. #insiders

clip of Keating - saying we could get 40 or 50 Collins class for this nuclear outlay - to segue to interview with Defence minister Marles. We start with why we need nuclear subs. #Insider

we are a small reading nation a long way from our trading partners, says Marles. He runs a deterrence line and says nuclear subs can stay at sea for months. The only limit is food for the crew, he says. #Insiders

refueling diesel subs is noisy and is called snorting. Cool. #Insiders

we have always been an island tho says Speers. Why the sudden threat? Not sudden, says Marles. This has been going on a long time [it sure has]. What is the threat to our trade route tho? Is China a threat to our sea lanes? Speers is now reciting the #Utopia script. #Insiders

assertion of sovereignty in the South China Sea, says Marles. It is not consistent with the UNCLoS. The rules based order. The strategic landscape. They are “working very hard” on the Aust-China relationship. #Insiders

so you are saying the subs are to protect our trade routes? That’s a yes? Will the [fantasy future] subs be used to protect Taiwan? That’s a seperate question says Marles. What’s the answer? asks Speers. Marles defaults back to rules based order #Insiders

no quid pro quo over access to the Virginia class subs? Of course not, says Marles. Sovereignty, complete sovereignty. #Insiders

meanwhile we will have US and UK nuclear subs on extended rotation here, says Speers. Will Australians be on board to learn the ropes? Yes. Wouldn’t they be under the command of the US then? If there was a conflict? This is a prosecutors fallacy Q. #Insiders

Speers is conflating US giving orders to Aust Mariners on Aust boats (comprehensively rejected) with US personnel giving orders to Aust personnel on US boats. #Insiders

cost. Breakdown the cost of each boat, thanks. Marles stumbles. You know these figures don’t you? Do you know the figures? I don’t know why you can’t give us the price. WHAT IS THE PRICE. Marles says $9 billion over the forwards (4 years). PER SUB THO?? #Insiders

you would think nothing else is happening in the world than yet another submarine announcement by an Australian government. #Insiders

nuclear waste. Is this a breach of ALP platform? Marles calls his party responsible nuclear steward including its [nuclear waste] ultimate disposal. Marles says we have 50 years. Speers says there will be low level waste inside 10 years. #Insiders

Speers reads out the ALP platform on not importing nuclear waste. No word on the decades long First Nations campaign against uranium mining in Kakadu, against exploding nuclear bombs at Maralinga, for adherence to Aboriginal laws of place. #Insiders

back to panel. Tingle asks if the big question mark is whether Aust gets deployed to defend Taiwan. Hartcher takes comfort in Marles “naming China” as a threat. He asks what is the timeline with Taiwan. #Insiders

the timeline - according to white people on a Sunday morning gasbagging about a military invasion that will cause untold suffering - is “taking Taiwan by force” by 2027. We will not have nuclear subs by then says Hartcher. #Insiders

Sheridan starts fantasising about a missile strike onPine Gap? Was that the claim? Speers says the “subs did blow everything else out of the water” and we all chortle appreciatively at the prospect of blowing up the oceans. #Insiders

let’s move on, says Speers. We have spent 48 minutes on the third submarine announcement in as many prime ministers. How’s about the productivity commission tho. God. This show. #Insiders

carbon price. Will not happen under this government, says Hartcher. Sheridan then spouts a load of revisionary nonsense about carbon “markets”. Your regular reminder that emissions went down under the Gillard price on carbon. #Insiders

more Sheridan, promoting gas extraction. For our “standard of living”. In the short term, Greg.

Why these people hate their own grandchildren so much is beyond me. #Insiders

the caps deal announced last December, says Tingle, based on a discussion paper that proposed “extraordinary powers” over gas prices. In contrast to corporate control, I guess. #Insiders

#TalkingPictures is with Mark Humphries and Antoinette Latouff. #Insiders

#TalkingPictures is up. Antoinette is a back to you David laydee. #Insiders

https://twitter.com/abcnews/status/1637226121308827655

#FinalObs 1 is Hartcher observing the 20 year commemoration (he calls it anniversary) of the invasion of (he calls it war in) Iraq and lecturing Aust governments on joining with US invasions [paraphrased] #Insiders

Tingle says something about submariners and Sheridan says something about Scotsmen getting red hair grants. #Insiders

the outtake is weapons manufacturer consultant and former defence procurement minister Christopher Pyne chatting merrily with defence minister Marles about snorting. #Insiders

this has been another edition of watching #Insiders so you don’t have to👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼