Australian Polity, Volume 9 Number 3 - Digital Version

FEATURE – AUSTRALIA’S DEFENCE AND SECURITY
A WORLD ORDER THAT
FAVOURS FREEDOM
/ SCOTT MORRISON
We are living in a time of great uncertainty not
seen since the 1930s, outside of wartime.
The challenges we face are many: the global
pandemic, the recession it has caused and the businessled
global recovery the world now needs to restore lives
and livelihoods; and a global trading system and rulesbased
order that is under serious strain and threat.
A new global energy economy is rising with profound
implications for Australia, as the world deals with and
addresses climate change. How we succeed and prosper
in this new ‘net zero emissions’ economy, without putting
at risk our resources, manufacturing and heavy industries,
the jobs of Australians, especially in regional Australia,
without imposing higher costs on Australian families
and how we keep the lights on, and not surrender the
economic advantages that Australia has had, is where
Australia’s national interest lies.
It’s not an argument about climate change. It’s about how
Australia best advances our interests as part of a world
that is dealing with climate change. It’s not about if or
when but protecting and advancing Australia’s interests
in a new net zero global energy economy. In that context
it is about the how.
Great power competition
However, above all, the defining issue I believe, for
global and regional stability, upon which our security, our
prosperity and our way of life depends, is escalating great
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