First we noticed a small piece of good news that a Wollongong-based steel manufacturer has landed a contract with a US submarine builder, but it’s likely to be very small. Which prompts the question: where is the $30 billion going that Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy says will be spent in Australia for AUKUS Pillar 1 – and it doesn’t take much to figure out that at least the first $10 billion is going on digging ditches and filling them with concrete. Not a lot of value adding there. The Defence budget, when used properly, can be a powerful tool for investing directly in the Australian economy. Very few governments understand that – and the current one appears clueless. Next – the looming disaster of the General Purpose Frigate. This is already a mess because not only is the media being kept in the dark but far more seriously the companies themselves have been forbidden from any contact with Australian industry. Let’s have a quick recap of how Australia successfully managed naval shipbuilding in the mid 1990s. Finally – an alternate future: the RAN could have started taking delivery in 2026 of the first of a class of powerful, missile firing corvettes. Instead we get nothing.

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