What sense is this?

Mr Turnbull rejected a push for Australia to install a missile defence shield to protect against an attack, saying he had received advice that it would not be helpful against North Korea’s long range missiles.

OK, so if the Norks find it too hard to attack Japan or Guam which do have missile defences however leaky they may be, Sydney seems pretty good as a place for them to show they really mean it. Does Malcolm never get anything important right? And then there’s this:

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said it was the “bellicose and provocative actions” of the North Korean dictatorship, and not Mr Trump’s rhetoric, which was of “big concern”.

“I and the government share the same concerns and the same views, and Australians should be reassured that on this matter of North Korea and our national security, the politics of Labor and Liberal are working absolutely together,” the Opposition Leader said.

“What we all need to do is be concentrating on encouraging North Korea to de-escalate. I think there is an important role for China to play here and of course we rely upon leadership from the United States. There are other nations which are much more affected than Australia, including of course the Republic of Korea and Japan, and neighbouring nations to North Korea.”

Good sense for a change. If they came up with a credible policy on stopping the boats, how much difference would it make who took over after the next election?

AND FURTHERMORE: This is a further follow-up at The Oz and these are the top comments which do seem to follow a single theme, possibly because the article is titled, “North Korea crisis: Trump’s ‘fury’ leaves Beijing with few options”. It is via The WSJ.

If any country has been lacking leadership on this issue, it is China. They have been letting the rabid dog get bigger and more paranoid on its border, while blaming the US for this issue. Garbage. Beijing has never fully implemented sanctions, always kept its powder dry … but now reality is slapping Xu in the face. China, you can’t keep avoiding your responsibilities forever.

Joan 1 hour ago
The most frightening part about all this is Trump is not only trying to protect the world from NK, which has been allowed to build its arsenal by previous Governments who have appeased and looked the other way, but now instead of supporting him, the media are not prepared to offer any support. They need to decide if they support western democracy or not.

@Joan – Joan, I never thought I’d see the day when the US wouldn’t support their President in a time of grave danger. Despicable.

Karl 2 hours ago
What did Obama do to stop it? Obama did nothing and he therefore allowed for N/Korea to develop and expand their nuclear program. And now is somehow Trump’s fault? How?

@Karl Becuse Trump is right wing anglo saxon: of course it’s his fault.

Massive China could have dealt with puny North Korea years ago if it wanted to. It doesn’t want to – simple as that. It is enjoying seeing the USA squirm while it expands its territorial ambitions in what is euphemistically called the “South China Sea”.

I find some solace in the fact that China finds itself in a difficult, uncomfortable position. This is all of their own making and I am pretty sure it is going to get a whole lot more uncomfortable for them as Trump ratchets up the pressure.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses North Korea as a stalking horse and plays a perfidious role.

China is 100% responsible for this situation, maybe Trump will force them to take this seriously.

Until China provides proof that they are trying to curb the sabre-rattling of tyrant Kim instead of secretly egging him on to provoke the USA, we cannot trust China in this mixed international chess game. Come on China – show us that you are truly follow your creed of “harmony”. We know you have the means to put little Kim back in his box.

50+ years of diplomacy with NK did not achieve much. They are now more dangerous then ever and if we are to believe intelligence they have the capacity (or soon) to launch nuclear attacks. The last two countries/leaders who threatened the West were Saddam Hussein/Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi/Libya. Both leaders are now dead and their countries are in chaos. The same will happen to North Korea IF they continue their path of madness. It’s interesting how our media (especially the ABC again) seems to think that Trump is the real problem, not Kim Jong-Un. Have they really not learned anything from the disaster Obama?

For a decade China did next to nothing to curb North Korea, possibly enjoying Obama’s impotence while progressing their illegal annexation of the South China Sea. Now the unintended consequences of their short term policies have come home to roost. What good will more talking do given that the diplomatic process has resulted in North Korea successfully developing the nuclear and missile technology it aspired to? That particular horse has bolted. They say that violence is the last resort of the incompetent. It therefore necessarily follows that incompetence is the province of diplomats. History is replete with examples of the fact that sanctions do not work. Prime examples of failed sanctions are the League of Nations imposing sanctions against Italy to make it pull out of Abyssinia and the US imposed sanctions on Japan following the invasion of China. North Korea joins those two in the list of epic failures. All I can say is that now maybe China WILL do something. Otherwise they are thinking too much of status money and getting as much as they can from the world and other countries.

China had played just as much a role in the predicament we’re in today, as have the other world leaders. If they had done what they were supposed to do for all these years, we wouldn’t be in this mess now.

Hey China you hold all the cards with regard to North Korea and you have done nothing, you and you alone can bring down Kim and the world knows it, so stop this little old me crap and fix it, Trump has every right to say enough is enough, as North Korea has been pulling this stunt for to long and the US patience has run out

Where did the technology and expertise come from? Stonewalling is a cultural characteristic of the Chinese and Trump is bypassing it.

Trump has changed the game by not being seen as a patsy. China now sees North Korea as a risk to its influence in the area, so is motivated to manage Kim better, but struggling to do it. All strategies have risks, but a risk averse short term strategy can lead to the highest risk outcome. Trump recognises that, and seems to be playing the threatening Bad Guy whilst Tillerson works the Good Guy in the background. Seems a lot smarter to me than the Obama appeasement and let them build their bombs strategy.

China has always supported the NK administration. There is no wsy they could have obtained nuclear missile capability without the chinese. The wall street journal is disingenous to report chinese concerns about trump rhetoric when they know he does not want war. It is also trite to say vhina is more concerned about domestic issues when they have been purposely tramping on international law in the south china sea. North korea is merely following the chinese disdain for the international community.

Seems to me that China should have taken more seriously the threat by North Korea many years ago. They had the trade and diplomatic ties to have averted Kim from this course of action but appear to have done little. Perhaps they thought that the US would continue to be led by weak apologists like Obama and the Clintons. Now China faces the prospect of a radioactive cloud after North Korea is vaporised, or more likely, a long-term US presence on its doorstep.

There I was wrapping the fish when this column by Greg Sheridan caught my eye: All credit to Turnbull for trying to seal deal with a troubled Trump. I gave you my view a couple of days ago but this is surreal. So let me take you to the end of the DT-MT transcript:

MT: You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.

DT: I have no choice to say that about it. Malcolm, I am going to say that I have no choice but to honour my predecessor’s deal. I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made. It is an embarrassment to the United States of America and you can say it just the way I said it. I will say it just that way. As far as I am concerned that is enough Malcolm. I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous.

So what does Sheridan say about the significance of this first-ever phone call between the PM and the new president:

A sensible prime minister goes into a conversation with a US president with two objectives in mind: to build a relationship and to secure one or more specific outcomes.

The fact of the matter is that the Australian-American alliance is crucial to both countries. But if you think MT came away with anything other than the most comprehensive disdain from PDT you are as out of the picture as Greg Sheridan himself seems to be.

From the front page of today’s Globe and Mail: Infrastructure bank seeks to avoid woes of Australian peer.

Politics is a clear dividing line in Australia when it comes to infrastructure. Since 2013, Australia has been led by the Liberal Party of Australia, which is more conservative than the left-leaning Australian Labor Party, the country’s other main political party. Australia is divided into six states and two territories.

The Australian Liberal government brought in an incentive program in 2014 called asset recycling that provided a financial reward to state governments that privatized assets. State reaction to the incentive largely broke down along partisan lines, with likeminded New South Wales praising the program as the “secret sauce” of success, while some Labor-led states declined to participate. Australia cancelled the program in 2016. . . .

John Quiggin, an economics professor at the University of Queensland, said other privately financed projects such as a $4.8billion toll road tunnel to the Brisbane airport, led to “disastrous losses for investors” as the original consortium went into receivership. He said it would appear from Mr. Sohi’s Sydney itinerary that he would have received a one-sided view of Australia’s experience. Prof. Quiggin said there have been several recent examples of Australian governments moving in the opposite direction, expanding public ownership in areas such as power generation.

“Looking at the itinerary, the minister will have spoken almost exclusively to advocates of private infrastructure, who will have told a rosy tale,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The fact is that these guys have lost the debate, as witnessed by the sudden surge of new public enterprises.”

Jeff Kennett, a former Liberal premier of the state of Victoria who approved his state’s first private toll road in the 1990s, has said those types of deals don’t make sense for governments with healthy finances. The toll highway, known as CityLink, opened in 1999 at a cost of $1.8-billion. Australian newspaper The Age estimated that the private owner, Transurban, is on pace to collect more than $20-billion in revenue by 2034.

Beats me what the point is but was nice to see all the usual gang on the front page of the local paper.

Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

John Stuart Mill (1867)

This is quite the opposite from “the best advice I can give is for good men and women to bite their tongues and to carry on”.

We live in the best civilisation the planet has yet been able to construct – more free, more prosperous, more tolerant than any that has ever before existed – yet we are very near to descending into a dark age none of us or our children or our children’s children will then ever live to see end of. Just this, going on right now, should scare you into some clear thinking about what is before us and what we need to do: BA BANK HOLIDAY CHAOS British Airways cancels ALL flights from Heathrow and Gatwick after systems go down across entire world causing havoc for British holidaymakers – but airline denies cyber attack. Nihilism is a genuine force in the world. This lovely life we have constructed has enemies as depraved and determined as any we have ever faced, some outside the wall and some within, who would see our way of life obliterated. And make no mistake, they will do it if they can. And they can and will if we let them. And unless we become determined to fight them at every turn, we will lose.

In the world we are in there is one big issue, so large the others near enough do not count.

Donald Trump is our last line of defense. Tony Abbott was on the same path but without the strength of purpose. The Coalition is now led by its own version of Tanya Pliberseck. An inane incompetent fool without a single feature worthy of respect. He is now being pushed against his will to do what needs to be done by others who see what needs to be done. Peter Dutton is emerging from the pack as our own man of vision and character. Our own domestic political miracle, like Trump’s win in the US, was that the Coalition did not lose the last election. We, too, will have one more try.

And it’s true, it’s not anger we need but a clear-headed resolve. We need this to be just the start: Dutton says ‘best outcome’ for Australians fighting in Syria is to get ‘killed over there’ and he didn’t mean our soldiers. I am happy to welcome Janet onto this side of the fight. This was the pull quote in The Australian:

Trump offered up the kind of moral clarity that drove the West to defeat Nazis and Soviet communists.

Trump has offered moral clarity and much else. He offers a will to resist and the means to fight back. We will not get a second chance.