New Courts etc, hmmm complete with bugging in the judges chambers etc ?

Australian politicians are proving to be too dumb, too slow, too apathetic to keep up with the sure and steady encroachment in our region by China. 'Rabbits caught in a spotlight' is hackneyed, but it is still the best description for most of our politicians, and certainly our Prime Minister. It's hard to see these fools halting China's gradual takeover of other countries when they can't even keep them out of Australia

very scary article. Meanwhile Indonesia is over the border doing whatever it likes to the long-suffering Papuans. And China seems to be having its own way everywhere.
Not sure if this virus will make any difference to things internationally.

I don't see what we can do? Let China with its huge debt problem spends like a drunken sailor with money an aging China doesn't have. If PNG is to allow this, we should cut off all our funding altogether.

Our best and only option, is to buy some nuclear-armed, nuclear subs off the shelf and now. Other than that I see us needing to beef up a rapid response self-defence capability and get into serious talks with potential allies on defence.

My rapid response team would have 100 minimum light tanks armed with armour pricing, self-loading 20 mm and anti-personal 20 mm, with a range from cover, of 2,000 metres. And 200 mm mortars and fifty cal sniper rifles.

And enough heavy-lift helicopters to put any of it anywhere as well as spot For the mortars, which have an over the hill range of a very useful 6,000 metres.

Yes, it'll cost a pretty penny. But we do not have 30 years to dither just so we can replace a car industry. Better we should start building cars again and they could and should be right-hand drive electric, we can export to several niche markets, via cooperative enterprise. And we need to transition to baseload, nuclear power,i.e., MSR thorium.

All that could make an aging, vehicle exporting China stop and consider if it is stirring a hornet's nest with this extremely aggressive posture in the pacific as well as give PNG a message it can ignore at its financial peril. If they PNG, think that economic blackmail is going to work for them? They need to think again.
Alan B.

...over the border doing whatever it likes to the long-suffering Papuans.
Waverley,
Where & how long have you spent time there ?

What has PNG to show for the 1.2 Million a day Australia is giving since 1975's "Independence" ?