What excites Scott Morrison about a university

PM Scott Morrison went to the Central Coast yesterday to open a new facility of the University of Newcastle. After talking about the dream catcher that one of his daughters hung over their bed, he gave us, in one inspired moment of Prime Ministerial sludge, a commentary on his idea of a university.

But for that to work, you've got to have a community base of infrastructure and services. And what makes all of that work, is an economy that can support that. And what excited me about this as Treasurer, I wasn't the Minister for Health, I was the Treasurer, and a university sits at the heart of pretty much every successful economic regional plan you care to nominate anywhere in the world, let alone in Australia. But not any university that, you know, keeps itself separate from the rest of the community and walks around in gowns and looks down on everybody. And, you know, only looks at things that are remotely interesting to anyone. It's a university that's very practical and understands the opportunities, whether it's in science or medicine or in any other areas or fields of enquiry and research, and is raising up a workforce and a generation of people that can actually transform the region in which they're living. Now that's what the University of Newcastle’s been doing.

The campus has been here for many years. But what captivated me in that original meeting - I don’t know if ever I’ve told you this - was that vision of the University of Newcastle to be really a, a university for the whole Central Coast Hunter region, and to be firing up the enterprises that are across the Central Coast and the Hunter to bring the best possible researchers into these universities in regional areas that make them world leaders.

And I I agree with you, and Christopher would be over the moon that you mentioned him today, but as for the Members of Parliament they’ll all know Christopher Pyne well, he loves a mention. But Christopher was right. And when I look at our regional universities, I get really excited. I get excited about the University of Newcastle. I get excited about the other universities like University of Western Sydney or the University of Wollongong or or Griffith or all of these, Deakin and so on, because what I find in those universities, and forgive me, Lucy, if this is a bit off topic, is I see a dynamism, I see an innovation, I see an engagement with industry and the community, and I see a connection to the services. And this is what I want for universities in Australia. I don't want them to be remote. I want them to be part of the community in which they sit. And not just, and I mean, the the economy of that community.

To break this down, he claims:

A university sits at the heart of pretty much every successful economic regional plan you care to nominate anywhere in the world. Not a university that keeps itself separate from the rest of the community and walks around in gowns and looks down on everybody. Not a university that only looks at things that are [only] remotely interesting to anyone.

It's a university that's very practical and understands the opportunities, and is raising up a workforce and a generation of people that can transform the region in which they're living.

And when I look at our regional universities, I get really excited. I get excited about the University of Newcastle, the University of Western Sydney, the University of Wollongong, Griffith ,Deakin and so on, because what I find in those universities, I see a dynamism, I see an innovation, I see an engagement with industry and the community, and I see a connection to the services. 

And this is what I want for universities in Australia. I don't want them to be remote. I want them to be part of the community in which they sit. And not just, and I mean, the the economy of that community.

That the PM seems to have decided to have no prepared remarks, and has thus delivered tortured and barely meaningful language, might be his way of trying to be 'authentic' on this occassion. Instead it comes across as someone not really caring at all about the event. The thrust of the overall remarks is that the new facility exists because the people of the Central Coast had the wisdom to elect a Liberal member.

But the comments about universities are quite telling. Firstly the PM draws this distinction between practical, locally connected universities and some other kind of university which keeps itself separate from the rest of the community. In the context, he is pretty much describing the G8 universities - Australia's equivalent to the UK's sandstone universities (mostly). The PM himself is a graduate of one of these (UNSW). I wonder at his University experience - I seriously doubt any academics walked around in gowns in his days as a student, let alone today. 

And it is this overreach on the question of gowns that makes the rest of the blather about these universities (looking down on everybody and only looking at things that are only remotely interesting) just appear incongruous.

We are left asking the question of whether the PM really believes these 'other' universities really exist, or whether it is a rhetorical device used to ensure that those who dislike all universities don't dislike this particular funding opportunity. 

And there are people who seem to 'dislike all universities.' These are the people wo talk of 'the march of the left through our institutions' and see universities as breading grounds of left-wing ideologies and socialist activists.  

I am personally a great fan of regional universities, for a host of reasons. I would prefer to see a shift in the undergraduate population away from the G8 to the regional. But my reasoning is demographic, it is one way of taking some population out of the capital cities, and maybe encouraging more people to live permanently outside these cities.  Or, in the case of city fringe universities like Western Sydney University, to create economic activity away from the historic city centre.

TIf the PM is genuine in the last part of his remarks, that he has some kind of genuine aspiration for universities to be part of the community in which they sit, what policy framework can he point to that is trying to develop this connection? A grant made to a University that sits in a Labor held electorate to open a facility in a nearby marginal coalition held electorate looks more like pork than policy. 

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Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans JWL

Climate Change, National Security and the ADF

One way to view the role of government is that it delivers four fundamental securities; national, personal, economic and social. National security is the foremost protection, defending the citizenry from interference with their rights by another nation. Personal security is the analogue of this and includes defending citizens from infringement by other citizens. Economic security aims to provide a continual increase in material wellbeing of the citizenry, while social security aims to provide for citizens unable to provide for themselves. 

In many ways politics is defined by the different views on how each of these should be viewed.

Events over recent weeks provide a platform for examining some of these issues. The Russian invasion of Ukraine commencing on 24 Fenruary raises important questions about national and economic security. The flood events in South East Queensland and Eastern NSW starting on 28 February raise important issues about personal and social security. This post is going to focus on the inter-relationships between the four securities.

The far away events in Eastern Europe are already having a dramatic impact on Australia. As outlined in an excellent article by my friend Claire Connelly in The Saturday Paper today, the application of economic sanctions against Russia, including on oil and gas exports, is driving up global prices. Claire makes the point that the impact would be less if we had already transitioned to more renewable fuel resources. 

Others have questioned the wisdom of Western Europe of becoming so reliant on Russian energy exports. This line of thinking misses the point that beyond the traditional fields of military force and diplomacy as means of providing national security, the world since 1945 has grown increasingly reliant on economic integration as a means of preserving peace. The West's response to Russia of imposing economic sanctions is slower acting, but ultimately far more effective than military intervention. The cost to Western Europe of some necessary economic adjustment is far less than the cost if a military conflict escalated to cover more territory than Ukraine.

Ultimately Putin's strategy is based on the belief that once he has secured Ukraine, the West will move on. But that won't be the case. Even Chamberlain only agreed to the German accession of the Sudetenland because he wanted to delay the ultimate war, not because he thought he could avoid it. Putin has been too clear that his ambition doesn't end with Ukraine.

The second lesson from this is that traditional defence forces are less important than they once were. A related lesson has been the demonstration of how unmanned weapons make some manned weapons obselete. Ever since John Monash first developed a battle plan that made tanks effective for the battle of Hamel, the tank has been the essential core of land warfare. The Ukrainians have thus far demonstrated how exposed they are to drone strike. It won't be long before the reverse will be shown - that drone cover will be more effective for supporting advancing infactry than tanks or armed personnel carriers.

The floods have again exposed the fragility of any nation in the face of extreme weather events. These events are expected to become more frequent and more severe as the climate continues to change as a result of greenhouse gasses. The floods first impact has been on personal security - with 22 deaths and much loss of property already resulting. And it throws many of these citizens back onto relying on the social security system, especially the need for housing.

A core part of commentary has been about how quickly the Australian Defence Force can be delpoyed in these circumstances, and on how much support it is reasonable to expect from them. Former General Peter Cosgrave today weighed into the debate and suggested that we shouldn't rely on the ADF, but should create a paid part-time civil defence force based on the model of the defence force reserve. 

There are two fundamental flaws in the Cosgrave solution. The first is the simple labour economics question of what group of people are going to be making a time re-allocation to engage in this paid part-time civil defence force. The two primary groups would be volunteer effort shifting to paid work - SES volunteers becoming part-time civl defence employees. That would add cost but not resources. The second group would be ADF part-timers moving to the relatively more safe occupation of civil-defence part-timers. 

The second and more significant flaw is to not understand the nature of national security. For Australia, there is already a 'war' of kinds being played out in the Pacific and South East Asia between China and the West on who provides support and assistance to these countries, including the security challenges they face. The first is the ongoing challenge of economic security, or development, in building a strong and sustainable economy to deliver material wellbeing. The second is the growing challende of adapting to climate change. 

One of the ways Australia has historically helped these nations is the use of our defence forces in various 'relief' efforts. Apart from being conducted remotely from our nation, these tasks are little different to the tasks we need in the face of such emergencies. These include clean-up operations, temporary housing, essential supplies including clean water, and potentially temporary health faclities. Added to these are simple engineering works of fabricating temporary roads, wharfs and bridges, and reestablishing communications.

These tasks are, however, also tasks that need to be performed in support of military defence activities. Unfortunately, the focus of military planners has been excessively on weapons platforms and special forces. The perception has been that tasks for which infantry manpower are required can be rapidly fabricated and added to force strength on an as needed basis.

The Ukranian war and our own natural disasters reflect the error in that thinking. Infantry supported by 'light' intelligent weapons are essential in a ground war; they can combat the weapons and tactics of the 20th century. Natural disasters increasing in intensity and frequency require greater manpower support that utilises skills we need to deploy in assistance through our region.

Personally I have long argued that being an open trading economy has been Australia's best defence strategy. None of the countries with whom we trade would be prepared to sit back and watch another country attempt to secure these resources by force. Central to that has been our sale of energy resources, that is coal and gas.

The importance of energy resources dictated the conduct of World War II. When Germany eventually declared war on Russia, the German's primary objective was Russian oil fields in the south. That dictated the structure of the campaign, but also laid the groundwork for is failure as the German advance was spread over two great a front. In the Pacific the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was designed to knock out the US fleet so that it couldn't slow the rapid advance the Japanes needed to make on Indonesian oil wells. 

The focus on energy resources in Australia has moved to discussions about the security of our own oil requirements. While a more rapid move to electric or fuel-cell vehicles will make sense there are also many developments in biofuels, such as the microbial conversion of fatty acids into propane (which provides LPG for gas converted cars). 

But the more important element is what happens to our trading relationships as countries no longer want our coal and gas. This is why Australia, as part of its national and economic security, needs to focus on being able to export its abundant energy capabilities, both as energy and energy intensive products.

Nine years of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government have been taking us in eaxactly the wrong direction. We have antagonised our Pacific neghbours over the response to climate change. We have failed to address our own energy security and the question of replacing our largest export industries. Our defence capability has focussed on ever bigger announcements about platforms (tanks, submarines) of limited usefulness, and failed to acknowledge the importance of a strong disaster response capability both for ourselves and our neighbours. 

Despite these failings, the LNP still believes its strengths are national security and economic management. If people need more convincing on the fallacy of that proposition, just remind them that it was Curtin who fought WWII and it was Whitlam, Hawke and Keating who created the strong open trading economy. 

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Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans JWL