APSNet 06 May 2010
- Dud’s army: dodgy kit puts troops at risk
- Fighters clear path for local work
- Curb urged on Iranian nukes
- Australia, East Timor at odds over gas field
- Uranium no bar to India deal: Crean
- National security information environment roadmap: 2020 vision
- [Indonesia] Sri Mulyani’s departure may threaten anti-graft drive
1. Dud’s army: dodgy kit puts troops at risk, Linton Besser and Dan Oakes, SMH, 2010-05-06
Australia’s troops are exposed to unnecessary risk because of defective equipment issued by a Defence procurement unit riddled with questionable tender practices and incompetence.
- Defence rejects media reports on clothing and equipment, Media release, Department of Defence, 2010-05-06
2. Fighters clear path for local work, John Kerin, AFR*, 2010-05-04
Australia’s decision to sign up as one of the first overseas buyers of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has opened up opportunities for local companies to win work on the $US300 billion project.
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3. Curb urged on Iranian nukes, Daniel Flitton, Age, 2010-05-05
Australia hit out at Iran’s nuclear ambitions, backing a chorus of Western countries warning Tehran must be stopped from building an atomic weapon. But the federal government itself came under fire on nuclear issues, accused of a ”shallow” response to its own multimillion-dollar investigation into nuclear threats.
4. Australia, East Timor at odds over gas field, ABC Radio Australia News, 2010-05-04
The Australian Government has told East Timor it cannot invite another company to develop the Greater Sunrise gas fields, in the Timor Sea. East Timor’s Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, has rejected a decision by the developer Woodside to establish a floating platform to process the gas, rather than a pipeline to either Darwin or Dili.
5. Uranium no bar to India deal: Crean, Matt Wade, SMH, 2010-05-05
A free-trade agreement with India could increase Australia’s gross domestic product by $45 billion over the next 20 years, a feasibility study has found. The Trade Minister, Simon Crean, said he hoped negotiations on a deal would start soon and acknowledged Australia’s ban on uranium sales to India was likely to figure in any talks.
- Uranium no issue for India trade talks, John Kerin, AFR*, 2010-05-06
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6. National security information environment roadmap: 2020 vision, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2010-05-05, [PDF, 2.6MB]
The roadmap provides for the first time a single strategy to overcome the many barriers to information sharing within the Federal national security community. The document details the journey of change the national security community will take over the next ten years to realise the vision of a secure, coordinated and effective national security information management environment.
7. Sri Mulyani’s departure may threaten anti-graft drive, Sara Webb, Jakarta Globe, 2010-05-05
In what could be a setback to a crackdown on graft and tax evasion, it was announced that key reformer Sri Mulyani Indrawati was quitting her job as finance minister to work at the World Bank. Sri Mulyani’s move raises several concerns, the first of which is that prospects for reform are probably weaker. It remains unclear whether she willingly left her cabinet post or whether the move was engineered as part of a deal to placate powerful coalition politicians, such as Golkar Party leader Aburizal Bakrie, who made no secret of his disdain for her.