A drunk’s shopping list on the Resolute Desk: Trump eyes Venezuela oil, Greenland “hard way,” bombs for Bibi. Napoleon’s ghost laughs as the rat-trap snaps shut. Multi-front madness meets manufactured war in the Gulf.
Tag: AUKUS
The Stakes of a Ley Victory—What a Coalition Government Would Mean for Australia
Sussan Ley’s Coalition promises regression on climate, housing, welfare, and integrity—while struggling to control its own fractured ranks and win back lost voters. In a volatile world, the risks of her untested leadership could not be higher. Why 2025 demands better.
Is Albo in Trouble? The Death by a Thousand Cuts.
Is Anthony Albanese finished — or simply governing inside a system designed to grind Labor down? From dark-money campaigning and media asymmetry to climate compromises, welfare cruelty, and the AUKUS mirage, this essay examines how a cautious government is bleeding by a thousand cuts in a political ecosystem rigged against it.
AUKUS Caucus
Australia has built a $368 billion cargo cult and called it strategy. The AUKUS Caucus offers money, bases and sovereignty in exchange for submarines that do not exist, built by shipyards that cannot deliver, on timelines that belong to fantasy. The only thing arriving on schedule is the bill.
Wronski’s News on Wednesday
Tuesday 10 December revealed Australian politics at its finest: banning teenagers from social media while spending $368 billion on submarines the UK admits it can’t build, from a country that’s already moved on diplomatically. Welcome to the Kingdom of the Unfalsifiable, where policy exists beyond verification, protected by the impenetrable forcefield of good intentions. As Richard Denniss observed, only a fabulously rich country could commit such sums without troubling Treasury or Parliament. We’re not battlers – we’re loaded enough to operate entirely in the realm of political fan fiction.
The Moral Hazard of Being US Deputy-Sheriff
Australian officials watched as US missiles struck Venezuelan fishermen. Eleven died. It was legal, Washington insists. But Australia is not just an observer—we have ADF personnel embedded in US commands, we host Pine Gap targeting facilities, and we help aim weapons we never authorised and cannot refuse. AUKUS binds us more tightly than any alliance since 1945. The question is whether we’ve traded sovereignty for security theatre. And whether a second strike on drowning men will finally be the line we refuse to cross.
The Tyranny of Delusion: How Australia Keeps Fighting Yesterday’s Wars
AUKUS is the culmination of our imperial hangover. It combines obsolete technology in an age of drones with geography that defeats its purpose, industrial bottlenecks that guarantee delay, and a strategic rationale contradicted by its authors. Political cowardice is dressed as resolve. We are spending a generation’s wealth on submarines we probably will not get, cannot crew, cannot fuel, to fight wars Washington has already priced out of its plans.
The AUKUS Delusion: Buying Yesterday’s Technology for Tomorrow’s War That Won’t Happen
Australia has a tragic genius for repeating its strategic mistakes. Part 2 of Urban Wronski’s AUKUS series traces how bipartisan cowardice; from Morrison’s photo-ops to Albanese’s deference; turned dependence into doctrine and loyalty into lunacy.
Handing Over the Till, Paying the Tab
Anthony Albanese flew to Washington to secure Australia’s critical minerals supply chains. He returned having signed away control of them. In the Cabinet Room, Trump publicly humiliated our ambassador moments before signing an $8.5 billion framework built on Letters of Interest, aspirational price floors, and submarines that may never arrive.
The Real Deal: Why Critical Minerals Matter More Than Submarines
Nobody in Canberra gets the Trump 2.0 administration. When Albanese meets Trump on 20 October, Canberra will bang on about submarines. The real conversation should be critical minerals—where Australia actually has leverage and America has desperate need. China controls the supply chains that power everything from semiconductors to missiles. Australia can break that stranglehold. If we’re smart enough to see it.
Urban Wronski Writes 