Shrugging off the Communist Chinese recent naval aggression around our country “cost the Australian public a chance to understand the risks”.

(https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/chinese-warships-australians-never-got-debate)

And, this matters because, as the author of the above article says diplomatically, Australia's security interests are “not aligned” with those of Communist China, whose ships came within 5-7 nautical miles from our Exclusive Economic Zone.

What could be surprising to many of us is that Chinese vessels are entitled to (under those ‘international laws’) enter our EEZ, and even conduct exercises there, including gunnery exercises.

But, our EEZ is not a “transit corridor”, and it is not analogous to the Taiwan Strait or the EEZ zones of SE Asia. While that doesn't mean that China cannot enter it, Australians “should pay explicit attention to why it would want to operate here.

Each demonstration of power (there were two) was the CCP sending a signal to Australia and the neighbourhood. China can reach and sustain operations in our region. The author doesn't think the exercises were a threat; but they “were not trivial” - as Albanese, lacking interest in defence and foreign affairs, acted as though they were.

We no longer enjoy the protection of distance from major conflicts. We are dependent on sea lanes and maritime trade. China is reminding us of that. Is Canberra listening? The Albanese government's “underwhelming” interest in defence suggests not.

Australians are owed an explanation as to what could happen, and how they could handle it as civilians in a country that has never had war come to it in the past. Apart from Darwin over 80 years ago.

Albanese shrugged off our new vulnerability, smirking, even giggling about how ‘everyone does it’.

Australia was unprepared for war when WW2 broke out. Then we had the advantage of the action being far away. Not any more.

Australians need to know the risks we all face (not just soldiers) if the country is attacked. Everywhere in Australia is now potentially dangerous for civilians.