New Depths in Australia-US Relations: The Collins Class ...

Maryanne Kelton: New Depths 38the vulnerabilities of Australia’s economic profile. 207 Public support of the ongoingproject by government and an ongoing commitment to its workforce, in both industryand navy, would thus seem not only desirable but responsible. Yet politicalobjectives remained paramount.At stake in this clearly, were both Commonwealth and State politicalinterests as a result of the sale's direct personal and social impact. Election results inWA and Queensland, together with the results of the Federal by-election in Ryan,Queensland, starkly revealed an electorate deeply dissatisfied with governmentalmanagement strategies. Any scent of a further mishandling of the much publicisedspectre of 'globalisation', in an ASC dismembering of the 900 skilled workforce inAdelaide, would directly impact on both the Coalition's Federal and South Australianelection prospects with elections anticipated in the latter half of 2001 for both.Nevertheless, if a rationalisation of the shipbuilding industry in Australia shouldrequire Tenix to relinquish its Williamstown dockyards for the Osborne site, thensimilar employment, social and economic concerns would confront Victoria. Stategovernments too, were active participants in the process, and sought to representtheir respective interests, including those decided in upcoming elections. SouthAustralian Premier, John Olsen, turned to Electric Boat, in endeavouring to ensurethat the state's defence and electronics industries would be preserved and developedthrough the establishment of a regional base for the US company. 208xiv. Domestic Management: The Opposition SubmergedClearly the political contours of this project exemplify the intricacies of thegovernment’s interest in managing threat on two different levels. That the Ministerfor Defence in 1999, John Moore, could publicise the McIntosh-Prescott Report 209 forboth domestic party political gain and to orient greater US involvement in the projectis demonstrative that the government was intent on managing threat on two differentlevels, both international and domestic. Elsewhere I have argued that thisgovernment sought US assistance because of the way it perceived threats. As aresponse it sought solace with its traditional allies. 210 And in the construction ofpolicy the Howard government needed to accentuate the ‘crisis dynamic’. FollowingCarol Johnson’s argument that the Coalition’s politics of reassurance wasnecessitated by a crisis of the position of the Anglo identity, 211 I contended that inforeign policy, the failure of public emphasis of the US alliance by the previousgovernment, was used by Howard to effect greater domestic political support. Here, Iargue that John Moore’s actions in establishing and utilising the McIntosh-PrescottReport constitutes a demonstration of the government’s interest in furthering ties withits traditional ally in addition to a specific policy manifestation of the deployment ofthis crisis dynamic. Moore managed this report, not only to disparage Beazley Laborbut also both to prompt and then defend greater intimacy with the US.207 See Stephen Bell’s account of Australia’s predicament in, Ungoverning the Economy: The PoliticalEconomy of Australian Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997, particularly ‘Problemswith Australia’s Economic Structure’, pp. 82-85.208 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 'Nuclear shipbuilder may set up in SA', ABC News Online, 31July 2000, < http://www.abc.net.au/news/business/2000/07/item20000731105420_1.htm >. AccessedMay 2003.209 Malcolm McIntosh and John Prescott, 'Report to the Minister for Defence on The Collins ClassSubmarine and Related Matters, Commonwealth of Australia, June 1999, p. 6, . Accessed May 2001.210 Maryanne Kelton, ‘More than an Ally’? Australia-US Relations since 1996’, PhD thesis currentlyunder examination, School of Political and International Studies, Flinders University, February 2004.See Chapter Two on threat perception in recent Australian foreign policy in particular.211 Carol Johnson, Governing Change: Keating to Howard, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia,2000, pp. 6-7. Also Carol Johnson, ‘The dilemmas of ethnic privilege: A comparison of constructions of’British’, ‘English’ and ‘Anglo-Celtic’ identity in contemporary British and Australian political discourse’,Ethnicities, vol. 2, no. 2, 2002, pp. 164-188.