Irresponsible politics: Australia's B-52 nuclear weapons problem

It was, the Senator continued to elaborate, beneath the minister to "engage in any more hypotheticals" – what Shoebridge was wishing to do, she accused, was "drum up concern, and I don't think it's responsible." What, then, was the appropriate response in the world according to Wong? "The responsible way of handling this is to recognise that the US has a 'neither confirm nor deny position' which we understand and respect."

This stubbornly irresponsible approach by the Australian government and its public servants means that the Australian public, at no point, can know whether US aircraft or delivery systems will have nuclear weapons, even if they transit through airspace or are based, for however long, on Australian soil. As Australian Greens Senator and Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jordon Steele John described it, "Australians have resisted the nuclearization of our military for decades and now the Albanese government is letting the Americans do it for us."

This ingloriously subservient status to Washington has been laid bare yet again, and along with that, the increasingly likely prospect of being targeted in any future conflict that involves the United States. Hardly a responsible state of affairs, and one on the verge of being treasonous.