Not even a national health crisis stops the Scott Morrison government鈥檚 push to grow the military industrial complex.
The prime minister鈥檚 refusal to provide free rapid antigen tests (RATs) was shortly followed by his announcement that he was spending听听on 75 Abrams Main Battle Tanks, 29 Assault Breacher Vehicles, 17 Joint Assault Bridge vehicles, six Hercules Combat Recovery Vehicles and 122 gas turbine engines. It comes on the heels of the AUKUS security pact.
This grotesque use of precious public funds for听听from the United States State Department during the peak of the Omicron wave tells us something about the government鈥檚 priorities: its military alliance with the US听鈥斕齛nd its contracts with weapons manufacturers听鈥 is more important听than our health.
According to the January 10听, Australia has not deployed a tank in combat since the Vietnam War. Even pro-war army spokespeople have queried the听听and argued the government should focus on potential regional maritime and air conflicts.
So, why tanks?
It seems that defence minister Peter Dutton wants to continually expand Australia鈥檚 military contracts with General Dynamics and Boeing as part of his defence upgrade and anti-China agenda.
Last year, following the AUKUS deal, Dutton announced military spending would rise to听.
鲍厂-产补蝉别诲听 (owned by Lockheed Martin) is contracted to manufacture the Abrams tanks. It will also manufacture parts for听听under the AUKUS deal.
As Australia is committed to spending an additional $42 billion on armoured vehicles over the next few years, General Dynamics is set to make huge profits.
Meanwhile, as the Omicron virus spreads and PCR tests are restricted, the public cannot access RATs 鈥 free or otherwise 鈥 because the government 鈥渏ust can鈥檛鈥 spend any more money on the pandemic. That was Morrison鈥檚 line on听on January 3.
鈥淲e just can鈥檛 go round and make everything free 鈥 we鈥檝e had JobKeeper, we've had business supports, we鈥檝e had the COVID disaster payments. We鈥檝e invested hundreds of billions of dollars getting Australia through this crisis. But we鈥檙e now in a stage of the pandemic, where you can鈥檛 just make everything free because when someone tells you they want to make something free, someone鈥檚 always going to pay for it and it鈥檚 going to be you.鈥
What Morrison didn鈥檛 tell听Sunrise听host Edwina Bartholomew is that the government is more than happy to spend $3.5 billion on tanks.
听has calculated that could buy 230 million RATs.
We shouldn鈥檛 forget either that Morrison and other ministers get their听听We are paying through the nose. Partly because of short supply and profiteering, price gouging is rampant and is now听听by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Doctors, unions and businesses are demanding RATs be made free for all. The听, which pushed for the government to听last October, said even in the United States, with its broken health system, half a billion free RATs are being made available. The British government is mailing to people鈥檚 homes and workplaces.
The Australian Medical Association and the Public Health Association of Australia also slammed the government, saying on January 5 that free RATs are an 鈥溾.听听
鈥淭he people most at risk from the pandemic are often least able to afford RATs 鈥 we didn鈥檛 let the market decide the price for COVID-19 vaccines and we must not let it determine RAT price," it said.
Public pressure has forced the government to concede it will听听RATs for concession, seniors, health care, low income and Veterans Affairs card holders. However, they can only get 10 RATs over a three month period.
The RATs versus tanks spending debacle shows who Morrison really serves. He and his government need to go. More than that, we need to build the movements for health care and workplace rights.听
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