Episodes

  • Episode 114

    Episode 114
    Oct 22 2025
    It's happened - the long awaited meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Donald Trump has occurred - and the Australian reporting of it has varied from average to woeful. It could have been much worse - but it has not altered the fundamentals of AUKUS Pillar One. If the US was serious about selling second hand Virginia class submarines to us, President $TRUMP could authorise the deal now with the transfer occurring in the 2030s - but the US won't do that. The critical minerals agreement is just as unnecessary as expected. Back in Australia, there's some very good news about domestic guided weapons manufacture with a three way deal between ourselves, Lockheed Martin and the US. We also ponder why it is that Ministers tell obvious untruths and falsehoods.

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    20 mins
  • Episode 113

    Episode 113
    Oct 13 2025

    The big international story is the ceasefire in Gaza - and thank goodness for that.

    Can US President Donald Trump claim it as a personal success? Absolutely!

    From what we can piece together, he was somehow able to persuade Hamas to trust Israel and at the same time finally got tough with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's hope the peace lasts, but with Israel's current policy settings that looks unlikely. We also preview our PM's meeting with Trump scheduled for October 20 - and let's hope there isn't any grovelling or attempts to appease the US by giving away lots of stuff.

    And finally a few depressing words about who really sets Australian security policy - and it's not governments or Ministers, it's a very powerful group of bureaucrats who have talked themselves into the belief that Australia cannot defend itself unaided. This has become a litmus test for admission into the group and has poisoned the minds of a number of Ministers.

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    18 mins
  • Episode 112

    Episode 112
    Oct 7 2025

    Better late than never, we start by looking at the Australia-PNG defence treaty, which has now been signed by the Prime Ministers of both countries.


    While generally a good thing, there are questions about how suitable it is for PNG's needs and whether it could act as a vehicle for a conflict with Indonesia.


    Then some words about US and Australian military cultures - and what will happen if they become completely incompatible. In the extraordinary meeting on September 30 with the entire US military hierarchy, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth made it clear that they only want white, male, Christian nationalists in the ranks.


    And some thoughts on why people in the US have suddenly started being so publicly supportive of AUKUS.

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    21 mins
  • Episode 111

    Episode 111
    Sep 29 2025
    This week there's a lot to talk about internationally because PM Anthony Albanese has been in the US and the UK. For the latter visit, the attitude of the Australian media has been displaying cultural cringe at its worst. Please understand that Australia does not need to "shore up" AUKUS because it's the UK begging us for our dollars. The PM now has a meeting with US President Donald Trump on October 20 and who knows how that will go because if Mr Trump's rambling, incoherent speech to the United Nations was anything to go by, he appears to have lost his mind. Finally a few more brief words about Xinjiang - and anyone who wants to understand China today has to look at the last 200 years of history.

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    20 mins
  • Episode 110

    Episode 110
    Sep 22 2025

    This podcast was recorded in Beijing at the end of a 12 day visit to China, the bulk of which was spent in the Xinjiang Autonomous region looking at topics such as the Belt & Road Initiative and the status of the Uighur ethnic community. But it has still been possible to keep an eye on events in Australia such as the supposed $12 billion investment in the Henderson maritime precinct and the failure to secure treaties with Vanuatu and now PNG. Plenty of egg on face for those - though the setbacks might be temporary. Also, the US seems to be descending into fascism, not that any Australian politicians care. Finally, some words about the treatment of the Uighurs. Has there been repression? Yes. But no one talks about the reasons why - dozens of extremely violent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists during a 20 year period.


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    20 mins
  • Episode 109

    Episode 109
    Sep 9 2025
    A correction to start with - Ukraine's Flamingo cruise missiles have a range of 3,000km, not the 1,000km mentioned in the previous podcast, giving rise to the question: if Ukraine can develop their own long-range cruise missiles, why can't Australia? Next we have the comical renaming of the US Defense Department to the War Department, as if this will do anything other than expose the Trump administration to more ridicule. Make no mistake, continuing pro-Russia actions make it abundantly clear that President Trump is not a supporter of democracies - and that could extend to Australia as the US retreats slowly into a posture of homeland defence. We look at nuclear submarine numbers in the US and UK with new analysis provided by retired submariner RADM Peter Briggs and it's not a pretty picture. If only we had stuck with France.

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    21 mins
  • Episode 108

    Episode 108
    Sep 1 2025
    We start with some thoughts about the still unexplained visit to Washington DC in the final week of August by Defence Minister Richard Marles. The exact circumstances of his meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remain unclear. Perhaps the visit was a substitute for the annual AUSMIN talks, which might not go ahead because of a lack of interest on the US side. The Australian government does not seem to realise that most of the world is rapidly realigning to minimise dependence on the erratic Trump administration. In our region Japan and the Republic of Korea are re-evaluating their relationship with Washington - and India has had enough and is trying to rapidly improve relations with China and possibly Russia. This means that the Quad - the security agreement between the US, Australia, Japan and India - is dead.

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    20 mins
  • Episode 107

    Episode 107
    Aug 25 2025
    Unfortunately the prediction in the previous podcast that the Trump administration will continue down the path of being an unreliable security partner is proving to be correct. US politics is swerving in a dangerous direction of dismantling many aspects of how a government functions - a process that has historical roots. Practical manifestations are things like on the one hand approving the sale of weapons to Ukraine, but on the other hand severely limiting how they can be used. The results of the Elbridge Colby revenue into AUKUS are expected by late November - and we predict that the sale of second-hand nuclear submarines will only go ahead if Australia can meet certain conditions, such as lifting Defence spending to 3.5% of GDP. Finally some speculation about why the Mogami frigate wasn't selected for SEA 3000 two years ago since it's now apparent it was always the preferred choice of the RAN. Could it be that two years ago only the basic Mogami was under construction but by delaying the decision until now the upgraded version is under contract meaning the Navy will get a much bigger ship with twice the number of VLS cells than the ship of 2023?

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    20 mins