This whole submarine debacle was really a Malcolm Turnbull-Christopher Pyne-Julie Bishop and friends balls up.According to AbC the process had begun before Dutton got the Defence job.
Abbott pretty much had the deal done to purchase Japanese Soryu subs off the shelf. At the eleventh hour, Poodle Pyne organised a revolt, as the Japanese solution didn’t allow for enough SA local content. And he was more worried about losing some marginal SA seats than the best overall solution for the nation.
He got Turnbull involved. And together they used the issue as a rallying point for the moderate faction to raise a wider coup against Abbott and the conservatives. It was the beginning of the end for Abbott’s reign. And in truth, Turnbull had been looking for an opportunity to oust him for a while. He now had an opportunity. And then the French deal is what we got.
When Turnbull and his allies were ousted from power of the party, with Morrison and Dutton taking over. I get the sense the French deal that Turnbull and Pyne signed up for was possibly always in a precarious position.
Don’t get me wrong. No particular love for Abbott. Just calling it how I have read accounts from neutral observers in that space.
It does illustrate though. How people more concerned with their own internal and cynical political outlook easily lose sight of the bigger more holistic picture of what they are there to achieve. With disastrously expensive and adverse strategic consequences.
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