We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine … I found myself humming that old Beatles song the other day, just out of the blue. But I couldn’t for the life of me remember the rest of the lyrics.
Why did it pop into my head?
What I think was happening was that my brain was happily finding a new metaphor for the huge political announcement from our esteemed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. As he stood at the podium in the US, in front of flags and crowds with US President Joe Biden and British PM Rishi Sunak, he attempted to sell us the concept of buying and building submarines for the next 30 years.
Built at some astronomical cost that I can’t even fathom (pun intended) and to no doubt blow out like a sub exhaling stale air after a long run underwater, these submarines are to save us from attack and bind us forever to the AUKUS concept.
What is wrong with this picture? Now depending on which side of the political divide you’re on, the idea could be seen as a godsend or an utter bloody disaster, a waste of taxpayers’ money even for my grandchildren’s children.
Now, of course I am not privy to the inner sanctum of defence secrets and the no doubt intense rounds of discussion among spies as to who our future enemies are and will be. I have to either trust our system of government or do a Paul Keating and loudly and vociferously condemn the whole project and add quite a few nasty side jabs.
But my friends and I are just not sure how to respond. Most of us find it baffling that it takes so long to actually build the bloody things, that we threw away countless billions of dollars giving up on the French connection and wasted a few years of potential building time to boot, and that something of this magnitude has not had more open discussion and debate.
Should we be thinking about better cybersecurity or having a huge fleet of drones before we think about a few piddly submarines that won’t have the champagne cracked over their bow for at least five years?
Will the submarines become a millstone around our neck or should I say a heavy weight belt around our middle that will sink us to the bottom of the economic ocean?
Perhaps we can have them painted yellow? Maybe not on the outside silly, but a few tasteful rooms, daffodil yellow, to cheer up all those poor submariners who don’t get to see sunlight for months and months on end. Then the sailors can sing the Beatles song and hopefully learn the rest of the lyrics.
Would that I live long enough to see the eventual cost of these boats. By that stage though, I may not even remember who the Beatles were. Hopefully I still like the colour yellow.
What do you think about the subs – and their cost? Why not share your thoughts in the comments section below?
Also read: Planning for a grey future