Tag Archive for: "Tony Abbott"
Tasting the new DFAT omelette

Some costs and benefits of Australia’s Foreign Affairs revolution are clear. The revolution was DFAT swallowing AusAID (Pre-FAT eats WasAID, in Casey Building argot), crunching together diplomatic pinstripes and aidies. A benefit for the Abbott …

CT Scan

This week features the Prime Minister’s national security statement, the Countering Violent Extremism Summit in Washington, terror threats in the Asia–Pacific, sweeping CT legal reforms across the globe and the upcoming metadata retention bill. Following …

National security: a surprise present

Surprise—national security agencies are now expected to face a threat growing in capability and intent and the government will reconsider whether they will do so with only slightly less money. The Prime Minister’s National Security …

DFAT swallows WasAID: aidies, tradies and pinstripes

Smoke clears. Agony and anguish ebb. The fallen depart. The integration of AusAID into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade—the greatest revolution in Australia’s foreign policy bureaucracy since 1987—is done, if not dusted. The …