Australia must break out of ‘dangerous alliance’

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Lead Editorial

26 July 2023
Vol. 25 No. 30

A flurry of media coverage this week on the case of Daniel Duggan has drawn attention to the bigger game in which this Australian citizen has been caught. The Top Gun pilot who was arrested coming out of Woolies late last year at the direction of the US government—supposedly for selling American military secrets to China—has now spent over 217 days in solitary confinement at Lithgow Correctional Centre.

The details of this case, documented by AAS (available online), reveal the “political nature of this extradition”, noted Duggan lawyer, family advocate and army veteran, Glenn Kolomeitz. The timeline and process of Duggan’s arrest, Kolomeitz told Sky News on 26 July, coincided with the change of attitude from the USA, and from Australia, vis-à-vis China (p. 5). That the extradition documents referenced “China” and “conspiracy”—the latter no less than 178 times—provided all the impetus necessary for Australia to comply with the request of its American ally for the persecution of Duggan, he told Sky a day earlier, on the day of Duggan’s hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court. Duggan’s extradition hearing was set for 24 November, but the magistrate dismissed the request by Duggan’s legal team to await the results of an Inspector General of Intelligence and Security investigation into whether ASIO illegally lured Duggan to Australia to secure his arrest.

Sky’s Peter Stefanovic, interviewing Kolomeitz on 26 July, asked whether the US Secretaries of State and Defence being in town, “breathing down our neck”, would influence the outcome? Kolomeitz noted incisively that “We’re in the middle of some real alliance diplomacy at the moment, with AUKUS ... and we’re starting to see ‘lapdog diplomacy’, the lapdog diplomacy we saw around Iraq”. He said he was a supporter of the US-Australia alliance, but “not at the expense of an Australian family”. These broader alliance issues are all-important, he explained, because at an extradition hearing the evidence of the case is not tested, Australia is merely presented with the extradition request and either ticks the box, or doesn’t.

Duggan is a victim of the big geopolitical games of our “dangerous allies”, the USA and UK, aimed at protecting Anglo-American hegemony at a time when the Global Majority of developing nations, led by China and Russia, are successfully driving for a new fair and just economic and security architecture.

Unsurprising therefore, is the timing of new “revelations“ from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). The foreign influence operation funded by defence contractors and foreign governments, claims that Chinese “bots” are amplifying Chinese interference in Australia by supporting proChina messaging on social media, including ACP tweets. Stunningly, the ASPI articles point to criticism of AUKUS, including former PM Paul Keating’s criticisms, and PwC (p. 7) as examples of Chinese interventions. It’s all too convenient that any debate the political establishment would like suppressed comes under this umbrella!

Lawfully, ASPI also claims this Chinese interference is targeting the Big Four banks, including for failing to provide regional services! This comes at a time when the regional bank closure inquiry has forced the banks into significant back downs in their digital drive, with the Sydney Morning Herald noting 7 July that CBA’s decision to halt planned branch closures for three years happened only because of “political scrutiny”.

ASPI is calling for the ACP’s banking campaign to come under the new social media censorship legislation. According to the Fact Sheet accompanying the government’s bill, one of the “serious harms” which it would prevent is “Economic or financial harm to Australians, the Australian economy or a sector of the Australian economy.” But how is this defined? National security legislation has long included provisions to protecting the financial sector from being undermined, which could be used to target those who challenge the credibility of the banking system. ASPI is now confirming that’s the intent, to silence the Australian Citizens Party (p. 3).

In this issue:

• Why is a US government-funded Canberra think tank attacking the campaign against bank closures in regional Australia?
• Five Eyes-AUKUS gang scapegoating Aussie ‘Top Gun’ Daniel Duggan for their war agenda
• Australia is handing control to an intelligence superstate
• Neoliberalism on trial in expanding PwC scandal
• BRICS summit could transform the New Development Bank
• China will authorise Argentina to use yuan swap to pay IMF
• Troubles for NATO expansion into Asia visible at summit
• The empire knows it’s pouring Ukrainian blood into an unwinnable proxy war
• Campaigning, it’s our civil right!
• International auditing reformers expose Big 4 in Australia
• ALMANAC: The Mont Pelerin Society dictates global fascism

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