Australia USA Lend Lease

[Lang]

Mike

All converted to dollars. Reserve Bank of Australia historic charts.

In government terms at the end of a 6 year war $US27m or 9m Australian pounds is pretty much SFA. This was around 3 weeks pay bill for the Australian Army at average numbers during the war. This equates in buying power today to $683,361,000 Australian Dollars.

At that time it took 3 US dollars to buy an Australian Pound.

They announce that much every election on single squeaky wheel vote buying projects. The proposed Virginia Class submarines for the RAN will cost $171,000,000,000 at the end - without the doubling in price as the project turns into the usual shambles. That is about $22,000,000,000 per boat each which is 32 times the value of Australia's WW2 LL debt - both in today's buying terms.

It certainly was not in the ball-park of the billions equivalent British debt.

Regardless of the amount, how many years, or decades, would it take the bureaucracies of both countries to create a similar result 3,000 page treaty today?

Lang