APSNet 21 January 2008

1. Rudd to Shake Up National Security
2. Report Warns E Timor Could Relapse Into Unrest
3. Diggers ‘Let Down’ Dutch Allies in Deadly Battle with Taliban
4. Frontier Insurgency Spills into a Pakistani City
5. Brisbane – Australia’s ‘Counter-Terror Hub’
6. Labour Closes Door for Unskilled Workers
7. PNG: Moran Landowners Give Govt 48 Hours

1. Rudd to Shake Up National Security, Cynthia Banham, Sydney Morning Herald, 2008-01-19

National security strategy faces its most radical shake-up in decades under a Federal Government plan aimed at redefining threats to the nation and confronting them head on. The ambitious plan will draw substantially on Britain’s strategy, which emphasises tackling the causes of terrorism. 

2. Report Warns E Timor Could Relapse Into Unrest, ABC, 2008-01-18

A report by an international security group is warning that East Timor could risk a relapse into civil conflict unless the country reforms its fledgling police and army. The International Crisis Group’s report says East Timor must revitalise efforts to reform its army and police if it is to avoid another spate of violence.

• Timor-Leste: Security Sector Reform, International Crisis Group (ICG), 17 January 2008

3. Diggers ‘Let Down’ Dutch Allies in Deadly Battle with Taliban, Tom Hyland, Sunday Age, 2008-01-20

Amid renewed tensions among allies over how to fight the war in Afghanistan, it has emerged that Australian special forces were suddenly ordered to halt just one kilometre from a battlefield where Dutch and Afghan troops were trying to repel 800 Taliban fighters. Dutch conservative opposition MP Arend Jan Boekestijn criticised the mandate of the Australian troops, saying it was “not robust enough” to allow them to join the battle.

• Diggers Say No to Allies’ Plan, Tom Hyland, 2008-10-28
• Reconstruction Task Force, Australia in Afghanistan, Nautilus Institute

4. Frontier Insurgency Spills into a Pakistani City, Jane Perlez, IHT, 2008-01-18

For centuries, fighting and lawlessness have been part of the fabric of this frontier city. But in the past year, Pakistan’s war with Islamic militants has spilled right into its alleys and bazaars, its forts and armories, killing policemen and soldiers and scaring its famously tough citizens. The Taliban and their militant sympathizers now hold strategic pockets on the city’s outskirts, the police say.

• Memo to Kevin Rudd: Why Are We in Afghanistan? Richard Tanter, Arena Magazine, 92, December 2007 – January 2008

5. Brisbane – Australia’s ‘Counter-Terror Hub’, Michael Wray, News.Com.Au, 2008-01-21

Brisbane will be Australia’s counter terrorism policing hub with squads of elite federal police to be based in the city for emergencies at home and in the Pacific region. It is believed a combination of Brisbane’s proximity to the Pacific region, its international airport and the Enoggera army base made it an attractive host for the ORG units.

6. Labour Closes Door for Unskilled Workers, Angus Grigg, AFR*, 2008-01-18

The Federal Government will not support unskilled migration as part of a free-trade deal with Indonesia says Immigration Minister Chris Evans. Indonesia Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said, “We would advocate any kind of negotations that supports the movement of skilled and unskilled labour because we do have the supply.”

* Subscription required.

7. Moran Landowners Give Govt 48 Hours, Andrew Alphonse, National, 2008-01-21

Landowners in S. Highlands province are giving the PNG Government and Oil Search Ltd 48 hours to convene the just abandoned NW Moran development forum. Failing that the landowners warned of the forceful closure of the NW Moran oil projects site, the Moran central oil fields and the new Pawa drilling site. Moro police sources confirmed that the NW Moran oil field forced to close last week had been reopened after police intervened.

• Moran, Oil Search Ltd

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Richard Tanter,
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