If China gets into Torres Strait proper (they already have fishing vessels there) then India will start jumping up & down because just about all international shipping through there is piloted by Indian Master Mariners. Australians have long ago priced themselves out of that game.
In fact it's not if but when China starts taking over the North of Australia for good. Darwin harbour was first & other places have already followed. The former Qld State Government has handed back huge masses of land to the indigenous with no strings attached or regard given to the infrastructure there provided by Australian Taxpayers.
All Labor orientated politicians, bureaucrats & voters should have to live there in the mess of their making !

Indy,

When you had the opportunity to enlist WHY did you fail to do so? Its not too late you know! As a new innovation I suggest the Seniors National Service incorporate a "floating flotilla" of your kind of folk, to take on the Chinese menace at sea! BTW; How are you at rowing?

"So, we need to be ready by 2027, which is also the date that some of the pundits are predicting China will invade Taiwan. For Pezzullo's must-do list, Google ‘The Strategist’. Nothing will be done, of course."

I think you and your war mongering friends should themselves be ready and we can tell the Chinese they are coming.
We should give them as much arms and ammo as they can carry and even a vessel big enough for all of them.

If you lot wish to go fight a country of 2 billion, who am I to stop you?
- But please just leave the rest of us out of it.

Meanwhile I wish to be dining at the local Chinese restaurant, with my beef and oyster sauce and special fried rice and continue to enjoy my cheap imported Chinese made stuff from Kmart, Officeworks, Big W, JB Hifi, Supercheap etc, and I really hope you foolhardy adventurers don't screw that up for me or end up getting the whole entire country destroyed.

Also please don't go wasting billions on pointless wars we can't win.
Defence is one thing, picking fights another.

"The threat posed to Australia is too scary for some people to accept; by kidding themselves that there is no threat (even though China has never tried to hide the fact that it wants to replace the US in our region) they feel safer: they can stay in denial. Our political class is also in denial and totally unprepared for what could happen. China knows this, and is going to become more aggressive."

We could always just quit five eyes, (or is it four-eyes now Trump seems to be going a different path and maybe the rest are trying to collectively impose their will against him?)
The deep state (bureaucrats) are going to do what a deep state does...
- And engage in a policy of neutrality and stop provoking them?

We could always engage in diplomacy instead of being weasels, chihuahua's and baboons?

Dear Critic,

World-order has just changed, America no longer exists and now we need time to adjust and arm ourselves.

Chinese warships are already circling Australia and train for invasion.
China doesn't care what we think or say, including whether we are neutral: for China, Australia is just one big hole in the ground full of minerals and its people do not mean for China any more than their own Uighurs.
If China has its way, then the younger Australian generations that can still work physically will be sent to the outback to dig, earning only water and bread till they fall, while the older folk like us will just starve to death sooner.

I support a tactical retreat, not surrender!
Luckily, Australia is a bit more defensible because it is geographically further away from China than Taiwan, so if some of the Taiwanese air-force and navy ends up here, then we may still stand a chance to survive.

Meanwhile we should cherish every remaining friend.

America no longer exists
Yuyutsu,
Well, it's outlasted Europe & Australia !