Henry Ergas has a sensible rebuttal in today's Australian of last week's piece by Paul Dibb and Richard Brabin-Smith arguing that a nuclear-propelled submarine option would erode Australia's defence self-reliance. Ergas points out, quite rightly, that the criteria of defence self-reliance for Australia imposed by Dibb and Brabin-Smith would only come at an unacceptable financial cost.
A point Ergas hasn't made (and which was pointed out to me by a correspondent) is that in several articles arguing against the nuclear submarine option, Professor Dibb has failed to declare that he is a member of the Defence SA advisory board. The board 'assists the (SA) State Government with its strategy and policy for delivering long-term defence industry growth', funded last week's Kokoda report on submarines, and includes the SA Treasurer, who last week lobbied Canberra for an Adelaide-built submarine.
Photo by Flickr user UK Defence Images.
