�CPA - The Guardian - #1457

as posted here ... �CPA - The Guardian - #1457

Dr Hannah Middleton

The federal government’s Defence White Paper released last year began the largest military build-up in Australia since World War II, ultimately costing at least $310 billion, on top of military spending that year of $29 billion with a guaranteed annual increase of three percent.

The 2010-11 federal budget continues this over-the-top irresponsible government spending on the military. Military spending is one of the few areas protected from government spending cuts, although some of the promised massive military capital investment has been delayed to help get the federal budget more quickly back in the black.

The government is forcing the Department of Defence and the ADF to find more than $1 billion in savings in the coming year. That billion and the $797 million it says Defence saved over the past year will be reinvested in equipment and operations.

Overall over $30 billion has been allocated for the military and security in the current financial year, and spending is due to increase again in 2013-14.

The Minister for Defence Materiel and Science, Greg Combet, is quoted in the Australian Defence Magazine as saying:

“This year the government has committed to total Defence resourcing of $30.8 billion in 2010-11.

“This compares to the 2009-10 estimated actual of $29.4 billion.

“Over the 2010-11 budget year and the three forward estimates years, we will have committed $122.7 billion to the defence of the nation.”

Afghanistan

In the budget the government has chosen to focus on providing increased protection for troops in Afghanistan with $1.1 billion earmarked for technology and equipment to protect the troops from rockets and improvised bombs that are the biggest killers of coalition troops in Afghanistan.

The only way to protect the lives of the young Australian men and women in uniform is to bring them home immediately and to end Australia’s military involvement in Afghanistan.

Instead of helping to end this brutal and immoral occupation of Afghanistan, the budget sets aside about $218 million to buy weapons that are causing massive civilian deaths and fuelling the fury of communities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The US-built “Shadow” Unmanned Aerial System – a battlefield surveillance drone – will be purchased for the Special Operations Task Group serving in Afghanistan.

The 2010-11 budget allocates $1.4 billion for operations in Afghanistan, East Timor and the Solomon Islands. $915 million of this is earmarked for Afghanistan and the Middle East Theatre of Operations.

Defence will also get $20 million to support the Rudd government’s program to increasingly “civilianise” its contribution to the military occupation of Afghanistan.

More spying

The budget includes funding for a major increase in surveillance across our region.

The government has merged the funding of key agencies into a $4.3 billion national security budget which will pay for greater powers of agencies including ASIO, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, and the Defence Signals Directorate, a military agency that uses satellites, ships, submarines and aircraft to sweep up intelligence.

The government says these agencies will increasingly deal with criminal activity rather than direct threats to national security posed by foreign states and their agents.

Atomic veterans compensated

One positive in the 2010-2011 budget is $24.4 million allocated to the 2,700 military personnel who survived the atom bomb tests at Maralinga, Emu Field and the Monte Bello Islands and dependants of those who died young as a result of their experience.

Choices to be made

The budget raises again serious questions about Rudd government priorities.

Australia can have 100 strike fighters and lousy schools. It can have 12 submarines and 3 warships and deteriorating hospitals, it can have drones and a damaged environment.

In reality the majority of Australians would prefer good services, jobs and a flourishing clean environment rather than a beefed up military machine.

Only 30 percent of Australians support increased military spending, according to public opinion polls.

With the federal election only a few months away, we need candidates for a new kind of government that will bring in policies of peace, security and sustainable development instead of Labor’s military madness.