'Drums are beating even louder': Former Home Affairs Secretary warns war could still be in Australia's future

Sky News AU

25-04-2025

As Australians gather to commemorate Anzac Day on the 110th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, former home affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo fears the country may not be far away from another war.
While speaking to Sky News' Laura Jayes on Anzac Day, Mr Pezzullo reflected on the prosperous way of living Australians have been able to lead as a result of the sacrifices others have made defending the country.
He recalled a "controversial" Anzac Day message he penned to staff four years ago where he warned of growing military tensions in other parts of the world, saying the "drums" of war were "beating" and said this message remained prevalent today.
He cited the war between Russia and Ukraine, which kicked off about 10 months after his message, as an example of how major conflicts continued to emerge globally.
On Friday he said the "drums of war" were still beating in an article for The Strategist.
The former deputy secretary of defence told Jayes the threat of war remains even more heightened than in 2021.
"No one doubts now that war is a problem in the current world. And in fact this morning, as I speak to you, there is potential mobilisation going on the border between India and Pakistan and the potential for military conflict to break out just there," he said.
"And of course, there's war in the Middle East. China's rehearsing for an invasion of Taiwan. They haven't made a decision about whether to do that.
"So it is regrettably a feature of our present and regrettably it might be a feature of our future. Those drums are beating even louder than what I warned about four years ago."
Mr Pezzullo also expressed concern about Australia's preparedness in the future, if the time comes where the country's military has to be ready to fight.
He said while he still believed Australia's youth would turn up and fight, showing the same valour of soldiers 110 years ago, he feared they may not have the tools available.
"The problem is, if you turn up unprepared, if you haven't had that military training, if you don't have the right equipment, if the defence capability hasn't been built up in the lead-up to the potential for conflict... then you're going to take more losses on the day of battle than you otherwise would need to and you won't potentially be successful on that first day," he said.
"Democracies tend to be slow to the fight, tyrannies tend to more mobilised, democracies tend to be slower to the fight, you saw that in World War One and World War Two, then they mobilise their population and they basically out-produce the aggressor.
"We might not have that luxury next time, if God forbid, it does come to it."
Mr Pezzullo's comments come after the Coalition pledged earlier this week to deliver a significant boost to military spending.
The Coalition plans to lift defence spending by $21 billion over the next five years, taking the nation's total outlay to 2.5 per cent of GDP, which will rise to 3 per cent within the next decade.
The former home affairs boss praised the Labor government's national defence strategy, but that it needed the funding the Coalition was pledging.
"I'd congratulate the government on its national defence strategy of 2024 but it's underfunded," he said.
"I think you'd almost have the optimal defence strategy for Australia if you could combine the money and the strategy from the two sides of politics."