Government has ‘taken the path of least resistance’ in not sending a warship to Red Sea

Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie says the government has “taken the path of least resistance” in not sending a warship to the Red Sea to help fight against Houthi rebels. The Defence Minister says the reason Australia will not be sending a warship is because the government wants to focus on its own trade routes which are mostly in the South China Sea. “They’re sending six people to Operation Prosperity Guardian to be staged in Bahrain,” Mr Hastie told Sky News Australia. “Where the real work is going to take place in the Red Sea along with other naval contributions. “The UK for example is sending a destroyer, the French are sending a frigate, we’ve always stepped up over the last 100 years when we’ve had to, to be a good global citizen, to upload the global rules-based order, and the Prime Minister has squibbed this.”