Bob Jones: Silliness from Barack Obama

Former President Barack Obama criticised the 4 days news blitz re the Titanic sub drama compared to the relative silence on the circa 500 mainly Pakistani migrant lives lost in the crowed fishing boat off the Greek coast. The clear inuendo was racism.

That was bloody silly. First, the migrant tragedy was done and dusted when the sub issue arose, but there was a much more important reason why the media became obsessed with the sub issue and that was its drama.

Don Brash: New Zealand's foreign policy dilemma

A few weeks ago, the New Zealand media gave some coverage to the spectacle of the US President and the Prime Ministers of Australia and the UK signing an agreement whereby Australia will buy eight nuclear-powered submarines over the next two decades at a cost of some $400 billion, confirmation of the so-called AUKUS treaty between the three countries.

Reactions in Australia were varied, though there was no push-back from the Opposition Liberal Party because the AUKUS deal had first been agreed while that party was in power. However, the former Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating, described the treaty as the worst decision Australia had made in a century.

Mike Hosking: Australia can see what needs to be done - why can't we?

Australia has had a week to remember.

Say whatever you want about war and conflict, but Australia entering the submarine club is major.

Very few countries have them and those that do are large, with correspondingly sized economies.

Australia is the smallest by a mile and yet there they are, now in a partnership with the United States and Britain in a deal that is specifically designed to manage our part of the world against China.

And where are we in this? The answer is nowhere.