News media only seem to be pushing the government narrative of better defense and 20,000 jobs for Australians. This is not what the Australian people asked for nor want. Let us put this in some form of perspective;
Biggest Investment in history; The $368 billion submarine deal is probably the biggest investment in Australia’s history, which translates to $16,000 per person for a handful of subs. To put this in perspective Australia’s largest infrastructure project on the books is the $16.8 billion WestConnex 33km traffic motorway in NSW (www.globalaustralia.gov.au).
Technology Outdated; It is likely that some of the technology of these subs will be outdated by the time they hit the water. Remember the $51billion NBN- upon completion the NBN was an inferior technology relative to 5G, & people in regional areas can now access Elon Musk’s Starlink
Nuclear Target; Australia has gone from being an annoyance to some governments, to a possible nuclear target (outside of US’s secret base- Pine Gap)
Nuclear waste; where and how are they going to dispose of the waste?
Diplomacy; future diplomacy will become more difficult
Alternative Defense Spending; more effective, significantly smaller spending could have been directed to newer more relevant technologies of AI, drones and robots.
Opportunity Cost; $368 billion could have been used for a multitude of beneficial services to Australia- improve health system, better education, build a tech industry etc etc
National Debt; to increase from $1,000,000,000,000 to $1.4 trillion
Although the government is not there to run businesses, it is supposed to help bankroll large projects that private industry cannot afford which benefit the economy. The Australia government tends to sit on their hands waiting for multinational companies to knock on our door. The $386 billion has no return to the Australian economy aside from assuaging imagined fears- equivalent to tossing the money down a deep hole. Here is a suggested list of investments the government can do instead, and we still have $350 billion left over...it would take me awhile to think how to spend such a sum of money:
| Set-up Cost | Annual Revenue |
Computer- Silicon chip fabrication | $10 billion | $10 billion |
Energy- Fusion Reactor | $5 billion | unknown |
Energy- Solar Farm | 1MW = $1million 100MW = $100 million | $350,000 $35 million |
Energy- Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant | $200-700 million | $750 million |
EV Cars- Tesla Gigafactory | $5 billion | $5 billion |
Steel Plant- furnace, steel, rolling mill etc (800,000t/year) | $2-5 billion | $500 million |
total | $26 billion | $16 billion / pa |
If you believe President (General) Eisenhower speech about the USA military-industrial Complex, then it can be feasible to believe that the USA is creating instability in the Asian region (eg. Nancy Pelosi visiting Taiwan at the height of US-China tensions) to sell military arms in the region. Reactionary Australia fork out $386 billion for subs.
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