Scott Morrison, portfolios, Taiwan, China, Kevin Rudd, Alexander Downer, labour market, environment
During an extraordinary event like a pandemic, it would be reasonable to create reserve ministers who could assume responsibility when actual ministers are incapacitated.
We understand all this – it’s what applies between a prime minister and deputy prime minister. It’s what happened when Harold Holt disappeared.When only some of it’s done at the start of a pandemic but the rest is done a year later, for no reason connected with the pandemic.Scott Morrison’s secretive actions to secure the power over five additional ministerial portfolios do not pass the pub test, long upheld by him as the ultimate measure of ethics, morality and legality.
By dismissing the warnings all three countries are taking up the gauntlet, implicitly sending a message to China: the way the Chinese Communist Party wants to rule the part of humanity under its control is abhorrent to us and in Taiwan we draw a line in the sand. We will fight.If, later this year, Xi Jinping is confirmed as a third-time president, he will prepare China for the fight with the powers of a dictator.If our hope is to ultimately make him blink, we have our work cut out.
This decision to unilaterally excise Taiwan’s near waters from “the Pacific area” as described in the ANZUS Treaty detonated the bipartisan custom of not recklessly speculating on future Taiwan scenarios.
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