Mike Pezzullo’s grim prediction of Australia’s ability to defend ourselves against China – and why we can’t ignore the regime’s three main strategies

The former boss of Australia’s Home Affairs Department has said it is “too late now” for the country to be properly prepared to defend itself against Chinese military aggression.

Mike Pezzullo said while trade relations with China have improved under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Australia must prepare for a possible war and highlighted the communist country’s three main strategies to gain power.

“We should have increased the pace of our defense spending over the last 15 years,” Pezzullo said. Sky News host Sharri Markson on Wednesday evening.

He wrote about the military threat posed by China in a 2009 Defense White Paper and said successive Australian governments since then had not done enough.

Mr Pezzullo said Australia should have commissioned and commissioned “major platforms” such as “the twelve major submarines”. [and] the general purpose frigates announced in that White Paper.

“That opportunity was lost about 15 years ago and beyond,” he said.

“It’s too late now to bring those platforms into the timeframes we need. We need to rethink having a larger fleet of perhaps more basic capabilities, like drones, that can act as replacements because we don’t have 10 to 15 years to build that kind of force.”

Mr Pezzullo said the lack of preparedness concerned him, given Australia’s policy of “defence self-reliance”.

“We don’t want to be dependent on combat assistance from the United States or anyone else. [so] It bothers me that there are some glaring gaps now,” he said.

He said there are three “dimensions” of the Chinese regime that should be the “center of our analysis” in dealing with events such as military insults and the physical blocking of journalist Cheng Lei in Parliament House this week by Chinese officials, as Anthony Albanese appeared alongside visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

Mr Pezzullo said the first dimension is China’s aim to “push” the US out of the Indo-Pacific so that it can start dictating to countries in the region, including Australia.

The second was the interference China uses to influence supply chains and technology, such as changing the value of its currency to undermine trade, or through the use of sanctions, such as those on Australian goods such as wine.

Third, Mr Pezzullo referred to what he called “political and cultural relativism” and said Australia must speak out about the value of Western civilization, the rule of law and the prevention of arbitrary detention.

“I think we need to stand up for the universality of these principles and not accept that relativism,” he said.

Mr Pezzullo was dismissed as interior minister last October after an investigation found he had breached the public service code of conduct.

But that hasn’t stopped Pezzullo from condemning the Labor government.

Last September he was sidelined over a series of explosive text messages in which he claimed he wanted to influence government affairs.

Mr Albanese confirmed that the top bureaucrat had been dismissed on November 27.

Seven months after his resignation, Pezzullo said Australia will “fall into a trap” if it does not build coalitions and “collaborate” with other like-minded countries instead of being so dependent on China for trade.

He said that while the trade improvements achieved by the Labor government were “not to be sneezed at”, he found it strange that Australia welcomed the lifting of sanctions that had been used as a weapon at all.

“We should not accept that this is normal behavior where turning those trade relationships into political weapons and then removing those barriers is something to be applauded and congratulated,” he said.

‘The Chinese approach is divide and rule. What they want is a bilateral relationship with everyone except the Americans.”

Mr. Pezzullo said his views were “not about the Chinese people, but about the regime (which) is a Leninist communist regime that believes in the absolute authority of the party… to control all organs, not just those of the state, but also the economy, culture and even politics’.

He said that if the Australian government did not take into account exactly how the communist state operates, “we will be wrong every time, and we will be surprised by what the state does.”

Markson asked him whether China was trying to buy Australia’s silence on its military aggression and human rights issues by lifting trade sanctions, to which he replied yes.

‘Achieving those bilateral victories is important. The point is, what do you do next?’ said Mr. Pezzullo.

He said if relations with China have been “normalized” by Premier Li Qiang’s visit, it would be a “policy failure” to diminish the importance of The Quad’s diplomatic partnership between Australia, India, Japan and the US.

“If we trade away those multilateral or regional groups and the bandings to get these bilateral benefits, which aren’t really benefits because they shouldn’t have been penalties in the first place, then I think we’re in danger. of policy failure,” he said.

‘In other words: yes, but the bilateral involvement is fine. It’s fine to visit here. Despite the atrocities in our parliament regarding Cheng Lai. It’s okay to have that trading involvement.

“I care about what you do next.”