‘Completely unacceptable': Albanese govt ‘not prepared' to discuss with Australians the threat of regional conflict with China
Last week, Sky News aired the special event 'The War Cabinet' comprising of a panel of defence experts who warned a conflict looms in the Indo-Pacific region.
During the discussion, former Labor Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, who served in the first Rudd government, said Australia's strategic outlook in the Indo-Pacific region was 'deteriorating rather markedly' and that the warning time of an attack is much shorter.
Additionally, CyberCX executive director Katherine Mansted said while Australia was not at war, 'we're certainly not at peace' and the Australian public had a 'huge stake' in defending its sovereignty.
'Chinese military cyber spies are actively probing our civilian critical infrastructure, looking for weaknesses and looking for ways to get in and hide and bide, potentially for high-impact sabotage, if relations deteriorate in the region,' she said.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor said despite the clear warnings, the Albanese government was 'not prepared' to talk about a conflict with China.
'They're not prepared to have an upfront discussion with the Australian people about the risk of domination of the Indo-Pacific by the Chinese Communist Party,' he told Sky News host Chris Kenny.
'I mean live-fire exercises off the south coast of New South Wales and the government has nothing serious to say about it.'
Mr Taylor said Australia had 'no choice' but to increase its defence spending from two to three per cent of GDP to ensure the Australian Defence Force (ADF) was prepared and capable to defend the nation.
'I know this is difficult at a time like this to find that money but we have no choice,' he said.
'We need to have an Australian Defence Force that is prepared, that is agile, that has the people it needs, that has this sovereign manufacturing capability it needs – missile manufacturing, drone and counter-drone manufacturing – the emerging technologies that we are seeing are playing such a critical role in conflicts around the world.
'The objective here of course is peace.'
Mr Taylor said Australia must also have a 'strong alliance' and admonished the Prime Minister for not having had a meeting with President Donald Trump.
'That's completely unacceptable,' he said.
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