On the one hand, it is the most cynical politicisation of Australia's national security interests in a generation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On the other, given the previously unthinkable prospect of East-West war, a not-too-veiled threat of nuclear escalation, and an exodus of displaced persons in Europe not seen since 1945, it is a situation of such gravity that no government could ignore it.
Then there's the China dimension.
On the one hand the Morrison government's alarmist rhetoric is blatant scare-mongering designed to leverage the Ukraine crisis, frighten voters and fracture unity where cross-party solidarity has been a crucial strength.
On the other, bellicose Beijing continues to covet Taiwan, to expand extra-territorially in the South and East China Seas, and to single out Australia as a puppet of US strategic policy. Added to which Beijing has pointedly refused to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the uncivilised slaughter of civilians.
Into this unnerving mix of threats both real and imagined, we get a major defence spend - also the biggest in a generation.
The third-time-lucky spring announcement to buy eight nuclear powered submarines, was itself a marked escalation of national security atmospherics.
Even if the nuclear option meant an even greater defence capability gap due to delayed deployment timeframe.
Now, that ultra-complex process is being shoe-horned into the government's election timetable.
Superficially, the decision to halve an already steep 18-month feasibility/capability phase represents the real politicisation - in this sense, it really is the nuclear option.
Rushed decisions made now will lock in Australia's defence posture, its capabilities, its alliances, and its interim vulnerabilities for years to come. These are the gravest matters for a government.
They are more important than the short-term exigencies of any party's hopes at an election.
But don't just take my word for it, take Malcolm Turnbull's.
The former Liberal prime minister rounded on the undisguised politics of the move on ABC radio.
"We are literally on the eve of an election, and rushing decisions which are meant to take 18 months into a six-month timeframe to save an election is ... transparently political," he said.
READ MORE:
Obviously, the government wants to milk the national security uncertainty of the moment for all it is worth in electoral terms.
The question is, will Labor bite when it has stuck like a limpet to the government in the national security debate in recent months?
Expect it to tread very carefully indeed.
A final point. So desperate is the Morrison government that it has just thrown the struggling SA Liberal government overboard less than a fortnight out from its state election. Remember, Adelaide was submarine central under the French deal, thanks largely to Christopher Pyne.
Now it is a strictly east coast affair. Someone's playing for keeps.
Mark Kenny
Mark Kenny is The Canberra Times' political analyst and a professor at the ANU's Australian Studies Institute. He hosts the Democracy Sausage podcast. He writes a column every Sunday.
Mark Kenny is The Canberra Times' political analyst and a professor at the ANU's Australian Studies Institute. He hosts the Democracy Sausage podcast. He writes a column every Sunday.
