Politics is a dirty word

Multinational minerals companies are exploiting Australia's mining royalties system which politicians have allowed to disintegrate. The companies are likely to pocket an extra $500 billion over the next 20 years unless Governments close the loopholes. Minining royalties should be a huge source of income for Australia, but in past years, slack administration by the Federal Government as well as State Treasurers in Western Australia and Queensland has seen many hundreds of billions of dollars float off overseas. Australia would have no national debt if all royalties had been collected.

A second aircraft carrier is under construction in China and is expected to be completed by the middle of this year although it probably won't enter service until 2019. Its home base is likely to be the Yulin Naval base on Hainan Island which is home for the Chinese nuclear submarine fleet.

Russian and Chinese scientists appear to be on the verge of perfecting systems to track nuclear submarines -which radically reduces their military value. Nuclear submarines are usually massive, with the largest around 200 metres long and displacing 50,000 cubic metres of water. When they cruise underwater they create gravitational ripples. A sensitive detector has been developed to analyse the invisible ripples, allowing the submarine to be tracked, targetted and destroyed. Emissions from submarine nuclear reactors are also able to be detected, providing clear identification of individual vessels.

A Russian destroyer and a naval tanker are in the Philippines in what many observers regard as preparations for war between the US and China over the South China Sea

There are reports that Russia has deployed a number of its hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles on two battlecruisers, ready for conflict with the US. When fully equipped, each battlecruiser is expected to carry 80 missiles with multiple warheads. Testing of the long range ultra-fast missiles has been going on since 2012 and versions have been developed for air and submarine launching.

The Government may be able to restore the image of the Australian of the Year Awards as there are some excellent finalists amongst this year's potential recipients. The past two winners have rather tarnished the reputation of the award.If there is another dud, It would be appropriate to discontinue the award process.It's probably too much to hope that there won't be the usual bunch of minor gongs given to a motley bunch of highly paid politicians, entertainers and sports personalities.

At least 40 landholders in North Queensland will be kicked off their land by the Federal Government in a plan to expand military training facilities at Shoalwater Bay. Prior to Christmas, the property owners received letters advising that their land was likely to be compulsorily acquired by the Department of Defence for the expanded training ground. The move is believed to be an indication that Federal politicians are preparing to back the United States in a pre-emptive strike against China. More than 14,000 troops from Singapore are expected to take part in training exercises. Singapore is said to have offered the feds $2.2 billion to use the facilities.US and other forces have used the area and other parts of Australia for joint training exercises.