Simon Birmingham: It’s well past time Australia stopped playing nice with global bully Russia

Weak or strong? Given the binary choice, sane people choose strength. Strength comes in many forms. Standing up to bullies is one of them.

Vladimir Putin is currently the world’s leading bully. In reality, bully is too polite a word. He is a murderous, oppressive and destructive autocrat. He is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands and ruining the lives of millions.

Disturbingly, we are not doing enough to defeat Putin. By we, I mean Australia, but also some of our fellow liberal democracies, with signs of fatigue, disinterest or even worse. We need to do more to help Ukraine defeat Russia and make Russia pay a higher price for its aggression.

Some ask, why is this our fight? Ukraine’s fight is our fight because they are the canary in the coal mine. Russia isn’t the only bad guy in the world and, if Ukraine falls, Putin and other autocrats will sniff weakness and come after others.

The next conflict may not be the day after Ukraine. It may not be a kinetic war like Ukraine. But one way or another, emboldened autocrats will seek to undermine global rules and the sovereignty of nations like Australia, should we and our allies be seen to be weak. We will pay the price via a less safe, less free world.

Ukraine is far from weak. Brave Ukrainians have withstood Russia’s military for two years. That’s nearly two years longer than many military experts predicted. But they cannot win alone.

Countries like Australia have helped. Two years ago the Morrison government positioned Australia as the leading non-NATO contributor to Ukraine. We gave military, financial, humanitarian and energy assistance. We made visas available for those fleeing and we sanctioned Russia, Putin and his cronies.

While the Albanese Government has made piecemeal announcements, Australian support has slipped relative to others. Labor declined to give Hawkei military vehicles, claiming issues with their roadworthiness. Our army is retiring a fleet of Taipan helicopters but is destroying rather than gifting them to Ukraine. Again, safety was cited.

Have the people coming up with these excuses not realised that Ukraine is at war? Mr Albanese should show some leadership and reverse these decisions, just as he should stop stalling and immediately agree to Ukraine’s repeated requests to continue coal shipments, while joining our allies in reopening an embassy in Kyiv.

It is also time to look at other ways of making Putin pay. Initial sanctions had economic impacts on Russia, but this has been undermined as some nations threw Russia alternative lifelines. Hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian assets are scattered through allied countries, frozen but still technically owned by the Russian state or an array of oligarchs and Putin cronies.

It’s time we stopped playing nicely by only freezing the assets of murderers and human rights abusers, when the seizure and sale of those assets could sharpen the punishment and fund assistance for the oppressed. Having sanctioned in excess of 1000 Russian individuals and entities to date, Australia has a role to play, even if most of the hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian assets are found in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Whether it is personal property like luxury homes or yachts, investments in the resources industry or other property owned by sanctioned Russians, we should work with likeminded countries to establish common rules through which these ill-gotten assets can be sold, with funds supporting Ukraine’s war effort, economy or reconstruction.

Ukraine’s resistance shows that freedom-loving nations can still work together to resist an aggressor. This sends a powerful message to all rule-breaking nations. If we are to gift future generations the same freedoms we enjoy and too easily take for granted, then we must redouble our efforts to make Ukraine’s victory a demonstration that together we are strong.

Senator Simon Birmingham is the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.