Latest news with #AustralianStrategicPolicyInstitute
Sky News AU
2 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Pete Hegseth urges Australia to increase defence spending
The Albanese government is warning of increasingly complex and challenging times ahead, driven by rising global security threats. Richard Marles has met his US counterpart Pete Hegseth in Singapore, marking the Defence Minister's first foreign trip since the election. The Trump administration has urged Australia to boost defence spending to three per cent of GDP. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is also advocating for a budget increase.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Wouldn't put a number on it': Marles open to raising defence spending after Hegseth meeting
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, to ramp up defence spending to counter China's increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, as the two men talked up the strength of the alliance under the Trump administration. Marles would not divulge what spending figure the pair had discussed, but America's demand would be likely to mean billions of dollars in extra defence funding. Marles confirmed Australia was open to further budget increases after meeting with Hegseth on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's top defence summit, as he prepared to deliver a speech on Saturday warning of the risk of an unchecked arms build-up by China and other major nuclear powers. 'I wouldn't put a number on it. The need to increase defence spending is something that he definitely raised,' Marles told ABC TV on Friday. 'We have done a lot already, but we are absolutely up for having this conversation, and we want to calibrate our defence spending to meet the strategic moment that we all face.' Marles said Hegseth's request was consistent with the broader push by the Trump administration for its allies to spend more on defence in order to benefit from the US security guarantee. Hegseth's defence expenditure drive builds on similar calls by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, who in March said Australia's military spending should rise to at least 3 per cent of gross domestic product, saying Canberra faced a 'powerful challenge in China'. It comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday criticised a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which found a lack of short-term defence funding had left the Australian Defence Force unprepared for conflict, and also called for an expenditure increase to 3 per cent of GDP.
The Age
2 days ago
- Business
- The Age
‘Wouldn't put a number on it': Marles open to raising defence spending after Hegseth meeting
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, to ramp up defence spending to counter China's increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, as the two men talked up the strength of the alliance under the Trump administration. Marles would not divulge what spending figure the pair had discussed, but America's demand would be likely to mean billions of dollars in extra defence funding. Marles confirmed Australia was open to further budget increases after meeting with Hegseth on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's top defence summit, as he prepared to deliver a speech on Saturday warning of the risk of an unchecked arms build-up by China and other major nuclear powers. 'I wouldn't put a number on it. The need to increase defence spending is something that he definitely raised,' Marles told ABC TV on Friday. 'We have done a lot already, but we are absolutely up for having this conversation, and we want to calibrate our defence spending to meet the strategic moment that we all face.' Marles said Hegseth's request was consistent with the broader push by the Trump administration for its allies to spend more on defence in order to benefit from the US security guarantee. Hegseth's defence expenditure drive builds on similar calls by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, who in March said Australia's military spending should rise to at least 3 per cent of gross domestic product, saying Canberra faced a 'powerful challenge in China'. It comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday criticised a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which found a lack of short-term defence funding had left the Australian Defence Force unprepared for conflict, and also called for an expenditure increase to 3 per cent of GDP.
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
‘We're out of time': Leading defence investor and former Shark Tank judge Steve Baxter demands greater defence investment
A leading investor has urged for greater defence investment as a warning that Australia is 'out of time' weighs on the nation. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) published a report on Thursday urging Labor to spend a larger chunk of the nation's budget to go into defence to 'reflect the reality of threats facing Australia'. Australia's defence spending constitutes about two per cent of the nation's GDP, putting the nation considerably behind allied nations such as the United States (3.5 per cent). The nation's lower portion of defence spending sparked concerns for former Shark Tank judge and tech and defence investor Steve Baxter who warned Australia needed to boost investment to better position itself amongst its allies. 'It would be very hard for us to act as a deterrent to China in any respect,' Mr Baxter said on Sky News' Business Now. 'We've always fought alongside and had the cooperation of larger allies. In World War 2 and pre-WW2 it was England and (post WW2) it's been the US. 'We have to be a good ally to assist in that deterrence and to do that we need to spend.' Pressed on whether China was the main adversary Australia faces, Mr Baxter dumped cold water on the prospect Australia faces similar threats elsewhere. 'They're the only one (we're) worried about,' he said. He also weighed in on the importance of attracting investors to the Australian market and referenced two major warnings in the Defence Strategic Review from March 2023. 'It said two things I think it got correct: It named China and then it said 'we're out of time',' Mr Baxter said. 'In the context of being out of time, that alluded to our strategic warning time being eroded and we no longer have 10 years - we have a lot less - to repair. 'What do you do in that context?' He urged the Australian government to 'supersize incentives' and called for bigger tax breaks than those seen with Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnerships and investment in businesses that qualify as an early stage innovation company. 'Instead of the 10 and 20 per cent incentives, if we think this is a really strategic problem and we're out of time, let's make that 50 or 100 per cent tax incentives,' Mr Baxter said. 'So, if we are out of time, we need to start acting.' The report from the ASPI said that while the Labor government 'claims to have made a 'generational investment in Australia's defence', that investment has been put off for another generation' as federal investment will not kick in until after 2029.
West Australian
3 days ago
- Politics
- West Australian
EDITORIAL: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's strategy of denial won't keep Australia secure
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute's report on national defence spending makes for sombre reading. 'We are confronted simultaneously by the rise of aggressive authoritarian powers, multiple conflicts around the world, persistent and evolving terrorism, foreign interference and the normalisation of cyberwarfare,' ASPI executive director Justin Bassi wrote. And yet, we are woefully under-prepared to respond to any potential crisis in the near to medium term. There are massive spending projects on the way, including acquiring new frigates, and nuclear-powered submarines through the AUKUS partnership. But the first of those ships and subs, essential as they are, aren't scheduled for delivery until well into the 2030s. Until then we risk being left with a 'paper ADF that lacks the readiness and size to meet near-term threats', according to ASPI analysis. We have a problem now, and a solution decades down the track will come too late. The report advocates for urgent acquisition of air and missile defence systems, long-range strike munitions, autonomous systems. Anthony Albanese's response to this warning was to dismiss it as a work of hysterical partisan hackery. 'Well, that's what they do, isn't it? ASPI. I mean seriously, they need to, I think, have a look at themselves as well and the way that they conduct themselves in debates,' he said. It seems his is a strategy of denial. ASPI, given its close connections to the ADF and the defence industry, is naturally hawkish, particularly on China. That doesn't make it wrong. Its warnings on China have been proved prescient by China's growing antagonism of Australia. Deliberate provocations earlier this year such as the circumnavigation of Australia by Chinese spy ships, and unannounced live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea are designed as intimidatory shows of military might. Parades of ministers, including the Prime Minister, acknowledge we are living in 'uncertain times'. So Mr Albanese's refusal to take ASPI's warnings seriously is concerning. Much of the debate on defence spending gets caught up on a handful of numbers — what is the percentage of GDP we can or should be spending on building and maintaining our defence capability? But even bucketloads of money won't ensure our nation's security unless it is backed up with a cohesive and apt plan. There's little doubt that many of the issues highlighted in the ASPI report — including low morale affecting personnel recruitment and retention — are real. Successive governments have failed to come up with solutions. Australia's defence strategy has long been centred on the premise that if under threat, we can rely on the Americans to help us. US President Donald Trump, however, had made it clear he expects America's allies to take a greater stake in their own defence. That's a warning Mr Albanese doesn't have the luxury of dismissing so easily.
