How long before Australia faces similar Defence cuts to the ones now being faced by the Brits? (See the many threads running on this same board since David Cameron's announcement.)
For those who think it'll never happen, let me mention one name... "Bob Brown". (And if there's anyone out there who thinks Defence will survive at the expense of Social Welfare and Environmental Protection projects, I have a bridge you might like buy...)
And after the spending cuts are in, I ask the AAAvn people out there what they'd rather be operating? Equipment that costs $5,000 an hour to operate or equipment that costs $35,000 an hour to operate?
I see Angus saying yesterday that "no expense will be spared" in defending the three SF soldiers charged over the civilian deaths last February. Myself, I could think up a way to save much of those expenses -
(1) Australia withdraws from the treaty (thank you, Mr Howard) that puts our soldiers at risk of being charged by the ICC for any 'offence' the ICC deems that they may be charged over.
(2) Drop the independent military tribunal (again, thank you, Mr Howard) that sees soldiers being tried by lawyers who've never been closer to a battlefield than the O's Mess in Kandahar rather than by other soldiers who know what going in to a defended cantonment at night actually means.