AUKUS

• The Australian Government has selected BAE Systems and ASC Pty Ltd to build Australia's new fleet of nuclear powered submarines in the latest significant development in the AUKUS trilateral security pact between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240321327876/en/
  A computer generated image of SSN-AUKUS which will be built for Australia by BAE Systems and ASC Pty Ltd (Photo: Business Wire)
  Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, and UK Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps, announced the news in Australia, marking the next step in the pathway for Australia to build and operate its own nuclear powered submarines.
• BAE Systems and ASC Pty Ltd will now bring together their complementary skills, expertise and capabilities under a collaborative arrangement in Australia, ultimately leading to the establishment of a long-term, incorporated Joint Venture.
• The involvement of BAE Systems in Australia ensures an integral connection between the SSN-AUKUS design led by BAE Systems in the UK and the development and maturation of the Australian build strategy.

• For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.
• The latest instalment, Nemesis, dealing with the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years, is the fourth of these series since the pioneering Labor in Power screened in 1993 chronicling the Hawke-Keating era.
• The Howard Years (2008) and The Killing Season (2015) followed examining respectively the Howard and Rudd-Gillard governments.
• By contrast, The Killing Season and Nemesis focus predominantly on the leadership wars that blighted Australian politics between 2007 and 2022.
• The most striking takeaway from Nemesis is that the Coalition’s decade in office from 2013 to 2022 was a time of abject irresponsibility.

The Abbott years

• It was a catalogue of swingeing cuts and broken promises (Abbott had pledged no cuts to health or education during the 2013 election campaign).
• The Abbott government never really recovered.
• Chastened by that result, Abbott then caused incredulity among colleagues by proclaiming that “good government begins today”.
• According to Turnbull, Abbott did not welcome the approach, telling him “to fuck off”.

The Turnbull years

• The public were relieved to see the back of Abbott and welcomed enthusiastically the ostensibly progressive Turnbull.
• Attorney-general in the government, George Brandis, refers to the Faustian bargain Turnbull had made to win the prime ministership.
• Dutton, the right-wing hard man who Turnbull scathingly describes as “a thug”, challenged for the leadership, losing relatively narrowly.
• A revelation about events during that febrile week is that Turnbull considered heading off his opponents by calling an election.
• The episode ends with Turnbull offering another pungent character assessment, this time of his successor: “duplicitous”.

The Morrison years

• It errs towards generosity to Morrison, not fully capturing why his leadership became a byword for inauthenticity, a prime minister whose obsession with the theatre of politics consistently trumped substance.
• The episode recalls many of the notorious statements made by Morrison, which by suggesting he was evading responsibility, was a bully or lacked empathy corroded his public image, especially among women voters.
• Asked about the comments, Morrison admits to poor choices of words.
• Nemesis shows that the COVID pandemic was both a blessing and curse for the Morrison government.
• Morrison then expended dwindling political capital by fruitlessly pursuing religious rights protections, causing ructions with Liberal moderates.
• We are left with the suspicion that once again Morrison is bending the truth.

A decade of banality and pettiness

• Participants in the documentary draw on classical allusions in making sense of the chaos.
• We are told, for instance, that the leadership feud between Abbott and Turnbull was Shakespearean.
• Yet what Nemesis exposes is the banality of these events and the pettiness of the actors.
• The post-Menzies Liberal triumvirate of Harold Holt, John Gorton and William McMahon were respectively overwhelmed by the office, reckless and pygmy like.

Paul Strangio received funding from the Australian Research Council in the past.

• The pandemic had intensified the attention on sustainable defense electronics products as people looked for eco-friendly choices.
• The booming defense industries in the Asia-Pacific region have fuelled the demand for defense electronics.
• The global defense electronics market is thoroughly examined across over 5 countries, featuring a detailed country-wise breakdown of values ($ million) for the forecast period 2022 to 2032.
• The research employs a blend of high-quality data, expert opinions, and independent analyses, striving for a comprehensive view of the global market.

• MCLEAN, Va., Jan. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HII’s (NYSE: HII) Mission Technologies division announced that Michael Lempke will lead HII Australia business efforts, effective Jan. 1, 2024.
• Lempke will direct HII’s business in-country and specifically in support of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) trilateral partnership.
• Lempke also serves as president of Mission Technologies’ Nuclear and Environmental Services business group.
• For HII in Australia, Lempke will be responsible for leveraging HII expertise in unmanned systems, C5ISR operations, the application of AI and machine learning, and nuclear shipbuilding expertise in support of AUKUS.