Agree, did you see Turnbull and Albanese making statements last night? Turnbull talked about someone handing you cash in a brown paper bag wearing a mask as the equivalent of a blind trust - the imagery was great and memorable. Albanese mumbled something I can't even remember. He is a terrible communicator. They need to cut through more. I can imagine Labor hacks watching Turnbull and just dismissing it as he is a Lib, but they should have been watching it and asking themselves why they couldn't come up with that line and get Albanese to deliver it.
The subs is an interesting one. No idea what this means for the French subs we have on order, are they cancelled? I don't like nuclear powered anything but the nuclear powered subs would have the advantage that they can stay under water for longer, no need for air to run the diesel generators on a conventional sub. I can't see any point in the further proliferation of nuclear weapons, too many of them already. The situation with China is a balancing act. The way the world works under the current arrangements, China can't really be allowed to just claim large areas of the ocean, but they also can't just be bullied into submission on this. China is now a very powerful country whether we like it or not. Not only Australia, but pretty much everywhere in the world is reliant on China for a fair bit of manufacturing and also as a market for exports. There has to be some accommodation with China, from China's perspective they feel like they are being hemmed in while the USA is allowed to roam all over the world influencing whatever governments they want and doing what they want. China is a major power and they want to be treated as such. Not an easy situation.
DS