A Chinese General has dismissed Australia’s attempts to bolster its military preparedness with a major escalation in defence spending saying Australia is neither strong nor powerful.
| “We don’t need to take it seriously,” General Jin Yinan said in an interview in China. General Jin said if Australia insists on intervening “it would only cause greater damage” to the country itself.
He also sensationally declared “white supremacy” was a key motivator for Canberra’s military-related decisions. However, Home Affair Minister Karen Andrews hit back at his comments during an interview with Sky News and defended Australia’s military capabilities. She said spending on the ADF over the next 10 years would total $270 billion and “appropriate action” was being taken.
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Government's 'objective' must remain keeping 'Aussies in Australia safe' | Sky News AustraliaChief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly says his “heart definitely goes out” to the 9000 Australians stranded in India but the objective “has to remain to keep Australians in Australia safe.” \n\nHe told Sky News the state and territories agreed in the early days of the pandemic that two per cent of infections in hotel quarantine “would be a benchmark of concern that we should take action once we got to that level.” \n\nProfessor Kelly pointed out now more than 15 per cent of occupants in the Howard Springs quarantine facility were infected with COVID, more than 70 per cent of which were returned travellers from India. \n\n“So I think you can get a sense of where the issue was and why action needed to be taken,” he said. \n\n“This is continuing to be a threat from overseas and our objective has to remain to keep Australians in Australia safe, that has got to be the fundamental element and that is what I was asked to give advice on.” \n\n
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PM’s ‘indefinite lockdown’ making Aussies ‘political prisoners’ of his election hopes | Sky News AustraliaAustralia has no “exit date” for international border closures which could continue indefinitely after the prime minister explicitly admitted he has “no game plan to re-join the rest of the world,” says Sky News host Rita Panahi.\n\nMr Morrison revealed to the Sunday Herald Sun he intended to keep Australia’s borders closed indefinitely, saying the completion of the vaccine rollout did not guarantee a reopening.\n\nHe also acknowledged he had no plans to abandon a “zero cases” target.\n\nMr Morrow said Scott Morrison was 'saying as recently as January and February of this year the strategy was suppression not elimination and now he has come out and explicitly said elimination”.\n\n“This is a very big change of messaging by the prime minister,” he pointed out.\n\n“Scott Morrison has made himself a political prisoner to panicky premiers like Mark McGowan and Annastacia Palaszczuk and as a result he’s made us political prisoners of his re-election hopes.\n\nMr Morrow said the Coalition were in “full-on election mode” and “smashing that panic button as hard as they can to stay in power.'\n
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