Be Like An Echidna: Why Australia Must Defend Itself, Not Depend on America

Over 14,000 people have read my recent #BoycottUSProducts posts. That tells me something: Australians are questioning our unhealthy overdependence on the United States. Not just in our shopping trolleys, but in foreign policy and national defence.

It’s time we looked in the mirror and asked: Is the United States still a values-aligned, reliable partner? I firmly but sadly believe the answer is no.

The US is becoming a dangerous mercenary in a new world order. The America we once stood with - shoulder to shoulder on battlefields from Kokoda to Kandahar - is gone. In its place is a fractured, authoritarian, and transactional state. A state that slaps its allies with tariffs, abandons its commitments at the stroke of a presidential pen, and openly supports dictators and fascism.

Today, the US is acting more like a strategic arms dealer than a trustworthy partner. It takes money for nuclear-powered submarines from allies while cutting its own global responsibilities. It uses trade, tech, and defence as bargaining chips in a zero-sum game.

We must ask ourselves. Why should we tie our fate to a superpower that destroys relationships and treats allies with contempt?

AUKUS is a perfect example. Born in secrecy, designed to entrench dependence, and laden with eye-watering costs, it binds Australia to a US that is not our own. The submarines won’t arrive for decades, if ever. And they will be out-of-date if they ever do arrive. The price tag is over $368 billion. And they risk us alienating neighbours and becoming a forward operating base in someone else’s war.

AUKUS is not security. It’s subservience.

Extricating ourselves from the US doesn’t mean not investing in defence. So what’s the alternative? Well our unique and amazing echidnas have the answer!

The Echidna Strategy: Defend, Don’t Project

We don’t need to be a mini-America. We don’t need to “project power” into the Indo-Pacific or follow the US into misguided conflicts.

We can be like an echidna: self-contained, quietly prepared, impossible to invade.

International security expert Sam Roggeveen’s Echidna Strategy proposes a bold but logical alternative to AUKUS. Rather than spending hundreds of billions on a few submarines designed to operate alongside the US Navy, we should invest in:

• Drones

• Anti-ship and anti-air missiles

• Mobile rocket launchers and cyber defence

• Surveillance and intelligence

• Defence of our northern approaches and maritime borders.

In short: we need to make Australia a nation that is incredibly difficult and expensive to attack, without threatening others or picking unnecessary fights.

First Nations Wisdom: The Echidna’s Warning

There’s a story from my own D’harawal Country that speaks powerfully to this moment. Long ago, the clever men created a monster - a giant creature of destruction, built with pride and ego. But the monster turned on them. It destroyed everything in its path.

Only one being survived: the echidna. Not because he fought the monster, but because he foresaw it. He warned against it and prepared. He dug in. And when the monster came, he simply curled up in a ball and let his spikes do the work.

The echidna didn’t seek glory. He survived with wisdom, not warfare. He relied on himself and his natural assets.

It’s time for Australia to reimagine our defence: not as an extension of Washington which has become a bad friend, but as a mature, sovereign response to the realities of our region and the world.

We must invest in our safety and security, not America’s ambitions.

Let’s be an echidna - grounded, prepared, and impossible to defeat.