Australia may loom large in the consciousness of the world, but economically, politically and militarily we are a minnow.
The point is that defence is the one area where you are meant to take the very long view. Australia has fastidiously and consistently kept up its end of the ANZUS alliance. We had experience in exercising secondary sovereignty due to our long allegiance to Britain. When the mother country proved to be incapable of defending us in World War II, we started sending our soldiers to fight in American wars instead of British ones.
You think we'd have learned the lesson that empires can be selectively blind when time comes to deliver the serious help.
The one interesting little twist in the Australian defence architecture is that we have a nuclear science organisation that has been maintained since the 1950s. The official reason is for the science, but it just so happens that we have a cadre of several hundred scientists of the kind you'd need to build a bomb in a few years if that seemed necessary. Plus quite a few British scientists who worked on the British weapons program retired here in the 60s and 70s. Perhaps as a thankyou for letting the Brits blow up Maralinga they passed on a few hints.
But really, it all comes back to the central problem that none of our politicians can tell their elbow from their arsehole, or TCP from tea. The guy who was chosen to negotiate the AUSFTA was a farmer who didn't understand the fuss about the IP provisions. We've had a series of Communications ministers who are an exciting mix of different species of arrogant ignorami.
Technology is not taken seriously in this country. That's the bottom line.
If the USA interfered with our footy finals it would be war.
- Technology is not taken seriously in this country. That's the bottom line.
Truth. I have (a surprisingly large amount of) friends who don't have internet to their house and the only website they visit is facebook on their phone.
Our current wired network is patchy and crowded, at best, even in population hubs. Gaps have been tried to be filled with wireless networks but with the proliferation of the smartphone all of the towers are oversold with prohibitive plans ($10/gb at least prepaid). The NBN might help but it will be many years before even 50% of aussies have access to it.
It's an uphill battle with our tiny population density combined with relatively low demand for top tier internet service.
The point is that defence is the one area where you are meant to take the very long view. Australia has fastidiously and consistently kept up its end of the ANZUS alliance. We had experience in exercising secondary sovereignty due to our long allegiance to Britain. When the mother country proved to be incapable of defending us in World War II, we started sending our soldiers to fight in American wars instead of British ones.
You think we'd have learned the lesson that empires can be selectively blind when time comes to deliver the serious help.
The one interesting little twist in the Australian defence architecture is that we have a nuclear science organisation that has been maintained since the 1950s. The official reason is for the science, but it just so happens that we have a cadre of several hundred scientists of the kind you'd need to build a bomb in a few years if that seemed necessary. Plus quite a few British scientists who worked on the British weapons program retired here in the 60s and 70s. Perhaps as a thankyou for letting the Brits blow up Maralinga they passed on a few hints.
But really, it all comes back to the central problem that none of our politicians can tell their elbow from their arsehole, or TCP from tea. The guy who was chosen to negotiate the AUSFTA was a farmer who didn't understand the fuss about the IP provisions. We've had a series of Communications ministers who are an exciting mix of different species of arrogant ignorami.
Technology is not taken seriously in this country. That's the bottom line.
If the USA interfered with our footy finals it would be war.