The highlight was watching a fierce-looking but fragile St Andrew’s Cross spider hang in the middle of its web, stretched between a sturdy gum tree and a shaky rosemary bush. Unusually, it was hanging there under the bright glare of the morning sun — easy prey for any passing magpie.
I couldn’t help think, that’s where we always are down here at the bottom of the world.
We want to be strong so we lean towards the big gums of America and Britain but we’re actually fragile because we don’t have the numbers and we don’t have the money. So we keep hoping and hanging in there like the beautiful spider out in the morning sun.
The signing of the Aukus deal this week is the reinforcement of the little guy’s big dream of staying safe and looking fierce at the same time, in a world that we are told is growing more fierce and unstable by the day.
China is building floating harbours on our northern doorstep and wagging a finger at Taiwan; American banks are going bust; Europe is struggling under Russian aggression.
We need serious protection.
Front pages of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have told us we are at risk, and we must prepare for war.
Interestingly, this momentous news was delivered exactly a week before the big Aukus announcement.
If I wasn’t a rabid conspiracy sceptic, this would stink of massive collusion between the military industrial complex and the fourth estate to soften us all up for the big Aukus news.
But it was obviously just a remarkable coincidence.
Along with the big announcement of eight shiny new submarines, came news of the cost: up to $368 billion over 30 years.
The Labor Government eventually chose to come clean about this eye-watering amount even if it did refer to the more reassuring figure of 0.15 per cent of GDP at the start of its commentary. If this were a Coalition announcement it would have either been buried in Senate committees or reluctantly released on page 368 of a special report into defence spending estimates.
The Aukus deal does have economic benefits for Australia — thousands of jobs, support for research and spin-off industries — as well as the obvious strategic defence capabilities.
However, there is no point in arguing the faults or merits of this deal. It has bipartisan support from Labour and the Coalition — so it will go ahead.
The only real sticking point for voters will be how it is all paid for.
To find an extra $10 billion or $12 billion a year, at the minimum, means finding a so-far undiscovered source of new income, more borrowing or some severe budget tweaking.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has already flagged his idea of making cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme to fund Aukus. Coming on the back of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, that’s a particularly insensitive and plain dumb idea.
There are always alternatives when it comes to funding big government projects.
The Australian Tax Office’s annual tax transparency report revealed last November that almost a third of large corporations operating in Australia — including fossil fuel companies and News Corp — paid no tax here at all.
The ATO explained there were genuine reasons why some companies were not liable for tax — particularly if they had not made a profit.
Nevertheless, rather than tweaking the national budget to squeeze the poor and the vulnerable, how about tweaking the tax system to make the rich and powerful pay their dues?
That way, the intricate web we have spun can stay strong and we can all hang in there regardless of our status or wealth.
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