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Defence procurement has been a joke for a long, long time. Submarines in the past, aircraft bought from US boneyards etc. Everywhere we look, in this country alone, brings to light problems. Defence, Robodebt, supermarket monopolies, right down to the RSPCA needing help to deal with other people’s lack of responsibility. Oh, and I forgot (I say sarcastically) endless charities for so many people needing help; like hungry kids. My goodness, in this country we have wanting children. It’s a disgrace. Governments think we are here to be told what to think, you know $368 billion to AUKUS while kids are going to school hungry. Meanwhile, the propaganda machine tells Australians things like “voting for a mining tax will cost jobs”. Norway took 90% of the profits from the North Sea oil-fields even when told investing companies would pull out; they didn’t. Don’t worry about how many kids we could look after with that tax money. And now we have a new corruption investigator that is headed by un-qualified people who get their friends off the hook. The list is never-ending. As long as I can remember the news tells us about domestic issues that need investigating, and a couple of years later the same story gets re-hashed. As I’ve said to Caitlin Johnstone, governments everywhere are simply corporate fluffers now. I’m happy to see BRICS gain multi-polar co-operative control now. The West has held the reins/whip for too long now, proving themselves murderers along the way. The US always gets what it wants. Look at all the major Australian companies I.e. banks, mining, pharma etc; majority shareholders are American. Even though I feel not enough Australians will ever think differently, I say good on you Michelle , keep going. And now to get something off my chest … nah joking.

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Thanks for your comment Miss TT. I agree it's disgraceful that children, indeed anyone, must go hungry or homeless in a rich country like Australia, while hundreds of billions are spent - with little transparency or accountability - on weapons and war machines that are not needed for our own security. You mentioned Norway. I have a Norwegian-Australian friend who told me recently that in Norway the government funds an array of independent media outlets, including those that don't necessarily support the government, to ensure there is a diverse range of reporting and a plurality of views to promote and sustain a healthy democracy. We could learn a lot from Norway.

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Did not know that about their independent news outlets. Oh dear we are sorely lacking. And their sovereign wealth fund (last I checked) had about $130000 per citizen invested. Mind you we don’t want Statoil in our Bass Strait.

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It seems clear to me that ministers and NACC Commissioners, specific to persons such as Richard Marles and NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton, must hate the people of Australia to the point they refuse to disclose their contra weapons sales, or our nation's hugely expensive weapons procurements.

Equally egregious to our Australia as to permit the proliferation of dishonest over/seas owned Arms and Weapons manufacturing corporations, to set up their sinister "international human slaughter trade) produced goods.

Another point to consider from an economic perspective, is the rapidly decreasing value of the US international fiat "non-securitized" trade dollar.

The New BRICS international trade unit currency is indeed securitized by both Gold and Silver.

Also, Australian-owned Gold mines must beware of avaricious USA owned mining interests, seeking to acquire or a takeover of Australia's richest goldmines, by exchanging their non-securitized USA (soon to be worthless) international trade unit 'fiat" dollar.

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Thanks for your comment William. It certainly becomes crystal clear in cases like this that the defence ministry and its department are not acting in the public interest and are openly favouring weapons industry interests.

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