History has judged Neville Chamberlain − who led Britain into World War II − poorly for his infamous 1938 observation of the conflict between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia as a “quarrel in a far away country,between people of whom we know nothing”.
Less than two years later,of course,the Nazis were bombing London.
Police officers inspect a crater in front of a damaged residential building hit by a Russian strike in Kharkiv,Ukraine,on Wednesday.AP
The plight of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in February 2022 shocked a generation not used to this scale of conflict on mainland Europe,and it has dominated front pages and news bulletins daily since. For a while,it seemed to unite the West in ways we hadn’t seen in years.
If,distance wise,Prague was in a country far away from London then Kyiv to Canberra is in another galaxy. A quarrel in a far away country,between people about whom − most of us at least − know nothing.
But that’s not quite true. We do have skin in the game. Ten years ago,we woke up to the news that 38 people who called Australia home died along with more than 260 others when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine by Russia-backed separatist forces. The federal government has,since 2018,maintained that Russia was responsible under international law,based on the strong body of evidence collected by investigators.
And 2024 is not 1938 anyway. While geography will always be an important determinant of how any nation assesses its national security,it is no longer the main driver it once was. Social media bots,disinformation on TikTok and cyber warfare are global and almost entirely free of national border constraints.
For a while,the Australian government seemed to appreciate the stakes in Ukraine. A few months after taking government,Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Kyiv and appeared genuinely moved by the courage on display.
As his Defence Minister Richard Marles later put it:“We stand with Ukraine in support of its courageous people and also in defence of a fundamental principle − the right of every sovereign nation to be secure in its own borders and to determine its own future.”
Australia’s support of Ukraine is,however,on the wane. Perhaps that’s putting it too nicely. It has fallen off a cliff.
Albanese and his cabinet have said for months that Australia is “one of the largest non-NATO contributors to Ukraine” when it comes to both military aid and humanitarian support. It’s a line that has been blindly accepted.
Australia has supplied Bushmaster vehicles to be used by combat medics in the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.Supplied
It should be noted that the only wealthy non-NATO members contributing less than Australia are New Zealand and Taiwan. The countries that contribute more as a percentage of GDP are:Japan,South Korea,Switzerland,Austria,Ireland,Cyprus and Malta. Australia is about eighth on the list,we know this courtesy of the.
Overall,the cost to Australian taxpayers of assistance to Ukraine since February 2022 is about $960 million. The overwhelming majority of that has been in military assistance,including 120 Bushmaster armoured vehicles,weapons and artillery ammunition. But it’s the government decisions of what not to send – such as decommissioned helicopters and Hawkei vehicles – that have garnered more headlines.
As retired Australian Army,now an author,strategist and commentator pointed out recently,it represents about five cents per person,per day since war broke out.
“Put another way,this is less than 0.3 per cent of the budget for the future submarine fleet,” Ryan wrote. “As the thirteenth-largest economy in the world,Australia can afford to do more.”
For a country as wealthy and generous as Australia,it is measly. This is from a group of people who wanted to spend $6 billion paying everyone $300 to get two COVID vaccines. About 90 per cent of us were happy to do it for free.
As World Vision Australia chief executive Daniel Wordsworth says,the Australian people are a generous people,and even if there is dissent on military aid,nothing should be stopping the government handing out humanitarian aid. Even if Australia’s focus is now fixed on the Indo-Pacific.
Rob Harris reports from Ukraine where women’s shelters tell the story of the plight of women and children in the war-torn country.
“You don’t have to see everything as a zero-sum game,” Wordsworth says. “Like surely we could help the Middle East at the same time we are able to help in Ukraine. People like to say,‘but there’s four things going on’,‘there’s a scarce allocation of resources’... ‘it’s economics’. No,we can handle it.”
But this is not ignorance or apathy from the federal government. It is a conscious,hardheaded choice from the people running their departments and budgets.
Australia’s foreign policy,under Foreign Minister Penny Wong,is now much more focused on its interests than promoting its values. For a long time,the Department of Foreign Affairs’ view has been that Australia has no interest in Eastern Europe and so pays mere lip service to its challenges.
How else can you explain the fact that while 67 other nations have re-established embassies in Kyiv since the invasion − including the United States,Japan,UK and Canada − Australia is not among them?
Many credible analysts say Ukraine could achieve sufficient leverage from military success on the battlefield to impose a lasting peace if the West stood together and increased assistance.
But if Russia wins? Dr Jack Watling at the UK Royal United Services Institute says that might mean a greater US commitment to deterrence in Europe,which would weaken its capacity to deter China and North Korea in the Indo-Pacific.
Watling says keeping the US distracted from the Indo-Pacific is probably a key motivation behind Beijing’s support for Moscow. So it is in Australia’s interests for the conflict in Ukraine to be resolved in Ukraine’s favour as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It is in everyone’s interest for Australia to put aside small and miserly spats over department budgets and look up over the horizon. This isn’t a quarrel in a land far away,it’s a battle at the heart of everything we value.
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