Mr. Beazley's legacy?

[Like This - Do That]

Not sure if this should be in the Military forum ......

There is a chance that we'll have a change of government later this year. If so it looks like 'Bomber' Beazley will be defence minister again. How do we assess his legacy from his 1984-90 stint? My gut feeling can be summed up as:

Army drifted towards irrelevancy;
Navy received some new toys most of which are of dubious value or took billions to rectify;
Air Force projects continually put on hold or deferred eg LIF, Wedgetail

Perhaps as one who has never voted ALP (and never will) and who is ex army I'm not neutral enough. I looked at the numbers a little while ago. Labour governments have tended to spend a tiny little bit less (I think '73 - '74 a lot less) than coalition but not much.

Your thoughts?

[Cessnadude]

Wasn't Beasley the man that had the forsight to acquire the G model F-111's !!!

[Hydrolix]

Wasn't Beasley also the one with the bright idea of buying 70 Hornets when we could have had 50 f-15's and 150 F-16s for the same price???

[Like This - Do That]

Hydrolix, the Hornet purchase was announced in December 1981 when (I think) Sir James Killen was Defence Minister in the Fraser government.

Cessnadude Senator Robert Ray was Defence Minister when the 'G' models were bought. I think Mr Beazley was Finance Minister at the time.

[Croppyking]

Cessnadude,

Whoever it was, Beazley or Ray, they only got it half right (or should I say a third). If Australia had of bought 60 G model F111's our Air force would be in a much better state than it is now.....

[Gnadenburg]

Hydrolix

Can you lay your figures, or creative accounting, on the table and explain how you came up with that?

[Rich-Fine-Green]

Hydrolix;

The Hornet deal was for local assembly.

The F15/F16 combo as I recall was for early block used models and USA made.

Local content is a big issue in most defence projects.

For me the jury is still out for Beazley's ability as a Defence Czar.....He and Rudd are about the only ones with any talent in the current opposition.

All I know is the opposition is full of lefties led by a guy weaned on Whitlem's ideals.

Defence will suffer with a regime change. Look at the what happened in Helensgrad. If Peter Garrett and others had their way, the Army would be reduced to Boy Scout troops on tree patrol and the Navy to whale escort. The Air Force grounded until Solor Powered GEs are developed.

Hand's up all those who remember 18% interest rates and 11.5% unemployment.

As for the 'G's'. We should have snapped up every last airframe available. The next Red Flag will show that the Pig still has what it takes.

[OZBUSDRIVER]

As a pre-74 RAAF air cadet, there is no way known that I will EVER vote for a labour party government. Especially one lead by an accolyte of that :mad: Whitlam.