Stilgherrian » liberal party

Super Hornets are Go

Stilgherrian — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:14:37 +0000

Defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon has announced that the controversial purchase of 24 Super Hornet aircraft will go ahead.

The review of the Howard government’s decision to buy the aircraft — at a total cost of $6 billion even though the RAAF hadn’t wanted them — reached some damaging conclusions, including:

There has been a lack of sound, long-term air combat capability planning decisions by the former Government over the course of the last decade.

The retirement of the F-111 was made in haste but is now irreversible. The cost of turning the F-111 back on would be enormous and crews and skills have already moved on.

The former Government’s decision to leave Australia’s air defences in the hands of the Joint Strike Fighter project was a flawed leap of faith in scheduling terms and combined with the quick decision to retire the F-111 early, allowed an air combat capability gap to emerge.

The subsequent timetable the former Government put on the acquisition of an interim fighter left Defence planners with no choice but to recommend the Super Hornet. No other suitable aircraft could be produced to meet the 2010 deadline the former Government had set. One year on, that is now even more so the case.

Cancelling the order would still incur a financial penalty and create “undesirable tensions”, and the final conclusions is that “the Super Hornet is an excellent aircraft… and is the only aircraft which can meet the small delivery window created by the former Government’s poor planning processes and politically-driven responses.”

As a shareholder in Australia Inc, I’d like to know why the former “board members” allowed this to happen. When company directors are negligent they become personally liable so why, given the report’s damning conclusions, does Brendan Nelson not become personally liable?

Why were established evaluation and purchasing processes ignored? What is the connection between former defence minister Brendan Nelson (a member of the Liberal Party), and the then chairman of Boeing Australia, Andrew Peacock, a former leader of the Liberal Party?

Hat-tip to Tim Dunlop, who also notes:

[D]o you make procurement decisions on the basis of strategy or is it on occasion necessary to build strategy around procurements that have already been made? I mean, the White Paper may be still six months away but it is hardly as if it is being written from scratch. It looks like Fitzgibbon has decided that getting the Super Hornet decision locked away was the more important factor and is happy enough to make strategy decisions with the Super Hornets in the mix. To paraphrase another Defence Minister/Secretary, sometimes you do strategy on the basis on the equipment you have.

As in this case. We’re buying the Super Hornets because, essentially, it’s the only choice left.

[Photo: A US Navy (USN) F/A-18E Super Hornet aircraft, Strike Fighter Squadron 115 (VFA-115), Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore, California (CA), launches from catapult three during flight operations on board the USN Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. US Navy via Wikipedia.]

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What hope the Liberal party?

Stilgherrian — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:31:49 +0000

Forget my last post about the Libs’ shoddy campaign in Marrickville, they can’t even organise a decent scandal any more!

While the Americans bring us sordid tales of evangelical ministers doing meth with rent boys and astronauts in diapers in kidnapping allegations, all the NSW Liberal Party can manage is sending a schoolboy-standard lewd SMS message. Pathetic.

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What hope the Liberal candidate?

Stilgherrian — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 06:46:28 +0000

OK, the Liberals have a snowflake’s chance of winning our local seat of Marrickville in the forthcoming NSW state election, so they can let any muppet have a go. But if this is the best election flyer you can come up with, Ramzy Mansour, then who are you kidding?

Consider:

If you can’t even organise someone who can cut paper in a straight line, what makes you think you can run the state of New South Wales?
If you can’t raise the $3000 to professionally print the 45,000 leaflets necessary to hit your electorate, how little support do you actually have?
If you can’t do the basic financial management to understand that for large print runs, offset printing is a lot cheaper than photocopying, why on earth would I trust you with a billion-dollar state budget?

1 out of 10, can do much, much better.

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Costello Snark 2003

Stilgherrian — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 18:39:43 +0000

This week’s spat between John Howard and Peter Costello over the prime ministership is all over the media, so no need for me to comment. But, thanks to Crikey I was reminded of one of Costello’s wond’rous snarky interviews — from 2003, again on the subject of the Liberal party leadership…

Journalist: Mr Costello, when did Mr Howard tell you of his decision?

Costello: Yesterday.

Journalist: How?

Costello: In words.

Journalist: (inaudible)

Treasurer: Yes, you know, words, which I heard through my ears. Sorry. Yes.

Journalist: (inaudible)

Costello: It was yesterday Michelle. The sun had risen, there was rain coming down, wind was going on, it was in words and it was heard through my ears and it was comprehended by my brain.

Source: http://www.australianpolitics.com/news/2003/06/03-06-03a.shtml