The Drums of War

Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Michael Pezzullo, gave cartoonists plenty to work with when he said: ‘In a world of perpetual tension and dread, the drums of war beat — sometimes faintly and distantly, and at other times more loudly and ever closer’. His comments were viewed as an escalation of the rhetoric around potential conflict with China. David Pope suggests Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne might favour a less noisy approach.