Australia security official warns staff of 'drums of war'
27 April, 2021
A senior Australian security bureaucrat warned his staff that free nations “again hear the beating drums” of war, as military tensions rise in the Asia-Pacific region.
Department of Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo’s message to all department staff on Australia’s veterans’ day on Sunday, known as Anzac Day, was published in The Australian newspaper on Tuesday.
“In an environment of perpetual tension and dread, the drums of war beat - sometimes faintly and distantly, and at other times more loudly and ever closer,” Pezzullo said.
“Today, as free nations again hear the beating drums watching worryingly the militarisation of conditions that we had, until recent years, thought unlikely to be catalysts for war, why don't we continue to search unceasingly for the opportunity for peace while bracing again, just as before, for the curse of war,” he added.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said she had approved of the wording of Pezzullo’s message.
“He's absolutely at liberty to prepare such a speech, a document, and to have that published,” Andrews told Nine Network television. “The overarching message from government is that we need to be alert however, not alarmed,” she said.
Senior opposition lawmaker Bill Shorten described Pezzullo’s mention of “drums of war” as “pretty hyperexcited language.”
“I’m not sure our senior public servants ought to be using that language because I’m uncertain what that actually helps except to cause more anxiety,” Shorten said.
Defense Minister Peter Dutton raised the chance of conflict between China and Taiwan in his own comments on Anzac Day.
“Nobody really wants to see conflict between China and Taiwan or somewhere else on the globe,” Dutton told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “I don’t think it must be discounted,” he said.
Pezzullo noted that this year marks the 70th anniversary of Australia’s defense treaty with america. He cited U.S. wartime generals Douglas MacArthur and President Dwight Eisenhower.
“Let us remember the warnings of two American generals who had known war waged totally and brutally: we should search always for the chance for peace amidst the curse of war, until we are confronted with the only prudent, if sorrowful, course - to send off, just as before, our warriors to fight the nation’s wars,” he said.
Australia must decrease the likelihood of war, “however, not at the expense of our treasured freedom,” Pezzullo said.
Australia last week provoked an angry response from Beijing by cancelling two Chinese Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure handles the Victoria state government on national interest grounds.
The Chinese Embassy in Australia said in a statement your choice would “bring further damage to bilateral relations and can only wrap up hurting” Australia.
Source: japantoday.com
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