Appointment of Greg Moriarty as next Australian Ambassador to the USA, to replace Kevin Rudd, will damage Australia’s national security.

Prime Minister Albanese said: “He’s been secretary of the Department of Defence and the AUKUS deal is central to our relationship with the US. And he’s in a very strong position to be on top of all of that detail.”

Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor of “The Australian”, is a very strong supporter of the Australia-US alliance, but on 9 December he wrote about the reality of AUKUS under the heading, “AUK-ward truth: the sinking feeling behind our subs pact”:

“AUKUS is adrift, and even if everyone on the planet says ‘full steam ahead’, it doesn’t change the underlying realities.” “The US companies involved have been stubbornly unable to meaningfully lift the rate of production of nuclear-powered submarines. By 2032, when Australia is scheduled to get its first Virginia-class submarine, the US will be gravely short of such boats.” “Elbridge Colby, the Under Secretary for Policy at the Pentagon, is inclined to face that reality now and talk about it clearly. But doing that explodes the happy fantasies of AUKUS, which for now suit all the players. So Colby was overruled in the report he could write.”

In Britain, the third member of AUKUS, Rear Admiral Philip Mathias, who was at one time head of ­nuclear policy at the Ministry of Defence, has said the UK was no longer capable of running a fleet of nuclear submarines. The latest British nuclear sub to enter service, HMS Agamemnon, took a catastrophic 13 years to build. Admiral Mathias said: “The SSN-AUKUS is a submarine which is not going to deliver what the UK or Australia needs in terms of capability or timescale.” (Mathias has actually called for the UK to pull out of the AUKUS deal.)

Sheridan added: “It’s also virtually inconceivable that the Brits will actually be building nuclear subs with Australia in Adelaide in the 2040s” and “nothing much is happening in Pillar Two of AUKUS – defence technology co-operation.” “Given how irrelevant we’ve become, the Americans are willing to continue to accept our money with good grace. That’s the summit of Albanese defence achievement so far.”

Albanese said that Kevin Rudd “can look back with real pride on taking AUKUS from an idea in to a reality”. I do not know if Rudd is a true believer in AUKUS or just a dutiful public servant, but Moriarty appears to be a religious true believer! Albanese, on the other hand, is little more than an idiot!

Read more on AUKUS here:
https://www.jeffschubert.com/foreign-affairs-magazine-on-aukus/