Lionel Bowen. Paul Keating. Brian Howe. Kim Beazley. Julia Gillard. Wayne Swan. Anthony Albanese (for five minutes in 2013). And… Richard, erm, Marles?
While the Coalition has routinely served up some duds as deputy prime minister courtesy of the Liberals’ deal with the Nationals — Barnaby Joyce being the most buffoonish example — Labor has normally elevated some of its ablest and most respected ministers, and future prime ministers, to the second-top job, despite factional and geographic requirements.
Richard Marles, however, fits none of those categories. He has the job because Albanese, unusually for a Labor leader, is from the Left faction and from NSW, meaning his deputy has to be from Victoria and the Right.
Marles is also defence minister — normally a place where weaker or lower-profile ministers can be hidden, and often reserved for those approaching the political departure lounge. But defence is now front and centre in policy debate, not just because of the perceived threat of China — or the bipartisan commitment to elevating our status as a vassal state to our imperial overlords in Washington — but because AUKUS represents the biggest industry policy decision in decades (remembering it includes funding American industry as well as our own) and a step-change in Australia’s position regarding nuclear power.
Even an astute, articulate and intelligent minister would be challenged by the development, implementation and, most crucially, selling of these issues. Marles ticks none of those boxes, a fact further exemplified by the government’s inability to convince even many within its own ranks that AUKUS represents either a worthwhile investment or a sensible strategy in relation to China.
Nor has Marles ever effectively addressed basic policy questions around AUKUS, such as those raised time and again by Malcolm Turnbull — specifically about the outsourcing of sovereignty to the US that the project represents, and why Australia did not pursue the cheaper, faster and more strategically coherent option of French nuclear submarines.
Turnbull’s questions go to the very heart of Australian defence policy and related issues such as non-proliferation and our role in the “Indo-Pacific”. Marles, in completely failing to address them, has left a gaping hole in Labor’s narrative of why we are committing to such a ludicrously expensive project with so few benefits. The impression Marles leaves is that he is so reflexively pro-American that he doesn’t even understand the basic argument about sovereign defence capabilities.
But if Marles can’t help it if he lacks the smarts to offer a coherent explanation of a significant shift in Australian defence policy, his lack of judgment is another matter. As my colleague David Hardaker has detailed, Marles seems bizarrely secretive about a trip to the US he undertook at the end of 2022, refusing to reveal the details of his playing a round of golf at one of the country’s most exclusive courses, the day after attending the opening of an office for Scale Facilitation, a Geelong company spruiked by Marles that was raided by tax authorities in June.
On a more prosaic and politically problematic level, Marles has been shown to have racked up $3.6 million in RAAF VIP flights — nearly half of which were domestic trips. The sum is far greater than when Peter Dutton was defence minister in the Morrison government. Marles refuses to detail why he took the flights, citing security reasons, but he appears to be using the RAAF flights to travel to Avalon Airport, much closer to his Geelong electorate than Melbourne’s main airport at Tullamarine, and to have taken one of the flights to watch the Matildas in the Women’s World Cup semi-final.
Marles should ask Bronwyn Bishop how this sort of thing goes down with the public — and why trying to dismiss it as in accordance with the rules doesn’t convince anyone.
If Marles’ own version of Choppergate does bring him undone, it would be a boon for Labor, enabling it to elevate Clare O’Neil to the deputy position. O’Neil, superior in every way to Marles, withdrew from the deputy leadership contest in 2019. We can only hope.
Is Marles heading for the door? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Factional horse-trading makes no sense to the voters especially when the result is this.
It is asking too much to witness an interview with Marles. His speaking skills are below average therefore the listener cannot be confident that he will finish a sentence – let alone be cogent. As an act of self-protection I turn off the radio, TV or mute Question Time whenever he surfaces.
The AUKUS deal/scam is sufficiently alarming without having Marles involved. He is way out of his depth… while putting the nation in danger of drowning.
He is way out of his depth – hence his love of submarines?
One wonders of his appointment, whether it was a ‘balance’ thing i.e. including a Victorian as senior cabinet Minister vs. NSW etc.?
One can ONLY wonder, or shrug and disengage…
The “Logic” (cough….) was explained in the article……………
“He has the job because Albanese, unusually for a Labor leader, is from the Left faction and from NSW, meaning his deputy has to be from Victoria and the Right.”
Marles is the product of American “culturation” of tagettted occupations, over many years, which casts a deadly pall over Australia’s independence
Marles is evil, dangerous, and incompetent all in one convenient package. How do we allow ourselves to be governed by idiots?
When your choice is between 2 idiots, it’s not really a choice.
He is simply (sic!) the evil of far too many lessers.
We don’t really get a choice. The “deputy leader” is chosen according to some arcane, secretive deal between undeclared factions. That’s how “democracy” works?
Labor is crumbling before our very eyes. The honeymoon is well and truly over and the disappointment is setting in hard. Tory hunter, hunt thyself.
Couldn’t agree more. How do we get this message to the big guys. Kevin 07 started well and crumbled. He, Kevin, didn’t listen to what people who originally voted for him were saying. I see this happening yet again, Labor.
It continues to amaze me that he was willing to abandon work on “the great moral challenge of our generation” just because he couldn’t do so by cosying up to the Coalition. It’s not like he was sticking to any principles, given that Turnbull had already negotiated the CPRS down to SFA, although even that was too much for Abbott and co.
The MSM mostly cover up the LNP and the lobby groups. Let me be very clear, I for one am not going back to the corruption of the LNP. Keep up the Good work Crikey
Our only hope is for it to crumble in the direction of a bigger cross-bench, not the return of a Coalition lead by someone who could easily take the crown of Worst Ever Australian PM from Abbott and Morrison.
I’m sure RW MSM cartel would agree with you, as that’s what their biased daily messaging has been, and is always about; never hear anything positive about the centre through left.
According to the Nine mastheads “ Flight tracker data shows a military plane has flown to or from Avalon about 70 times since March, including 35 movements between Avalon and Canberra. Passenger details for these flights have not been made public. Marles lives in Geelong, which is much closer to Avalon than to Melbourne’s major domestic airport at Tullamarine. A spokeswoman for Marles contested the public flight tracker information, saying he “routinely travels on commercial flights both for sitting weeks and other business travel”.
His staffer says Marles “routinely travels on commercial flights for sitting weeks and other travel”. Flight Tracker shows a VIP plane has flown between Avalon and Canberra 35 times but does not say if they are return or one-way trips. However it also claims there have been 70 flights to and from Avalon so it seems reasonable to assume that would be 35 return flights to Canberra since March. Coincidentally, there have been 37 sitting days for the House of Reps since March.
If Marles has been commuting from Avalon to Canberra and back nearly every sitting day since March, that is an egregious waste of money and displays an extraordinarily arrogant sense of entitlement.
If he hasn’t been doing that, then what were all those flights for?
But you lack his grand perspective – you can’t expect him to be distracted by the cost of a few VIP flights when he’s so busy pissing half a trillion dollars into the wind.
That would be a very good question for someone to ask in Parliament
Marles is in it for the money. He wants to get a piece of the millions currently bleeding out to Pyne and Hockey. He might not be smart but he knows that a suitably venal ex politician can get very rich if he can stake a claim somewhere in the AUKUS gravy train.
Unfortunately there is significant evidence of this, which makes him worse than incompetent.