WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT
The blockbuster warship deal with Japan has taken a weird turn this afternoon, after a bit of a curve ball from our northern friends.
The Japanese have reportedly offered to significantly discount the price on these Mitsubishi warships, if they are allowed to conduct a little bit of science when they drop them off.
Dangling a harpoon sized carrot, it’s believed they are willing to slice a couple of billion off the price of the deal, pending some ‘experiments’ around places like Byron Bay and Eden.
This comes as the Australian government prepare to begin negotiations with Mitsubishi over the 10 billion dollar package.
As it currently stands, 3 of the frigates will be built in Japan, with the other 8 to be manufactured in Western Australia, with large chunks of money going towards setting up infrastructure to do so.
However, that deal could become substantially better for Australia, should they allow the Japanese to bring down a few harpoons when dropping off those first three frigates.
“Yeah, they reckon if we let them conduct some science in Australian waters, then they’ll lower the deal by a couple of mil,” said Defence Minister Richard Marles today.
“So I guess we’ve gotta figure out the price of a few whales.”
“Numbers are pretty healthy at the moment right?”
“Right?”
More to come.
