We are a potential target because of Chinese aggression, not any American “footprint”.

And it is not a bad thing that the U.S “has control or has access to roughly two-thirds of surveyed Australian defence facilities, being around 110 out of 168 facilities”. They will want to keep and defend those facilities, unlike Australia itself, which doesn't seem to be interested in defence at all, having “normalised”, whatever that means, its relationship with the only threat to us in the region.

U.S bases are, hopefully, “central to the US presence in the region” because the U.S presence is essential to Australia and the region. Australia has been a target for decades, Without the U.S, Australia is an indefensible target.

The one sensible thing that that Hunter says:

“Modern strike systems do not require the attacker to close geographically in the way earlier generations of conflict demanded, as military range and precision improvements have compressed the strategic map”, is a reminder of the importance of ‘iron dome’ DEFENCE weaponry, not running back and forth to piddling little Pacific islands that have nothing that Australia needs.

America is our only option.