Latest news with #DefenceStrategicReview
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Strategic expert blasts Anthony Albanese's 'bizarre' attack on defence spending report as Australia faces a 'crisis situation'
Strategic Analysis Australia Director Peter Jennings has blasted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after he lashed out at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and refused to meet the United States halfway on defence spending. Sky News' Sunday Agenda reported Mr Albanese would not accept the US request and would stand by Labor's existing policy of increasing defence funding. Under the government's projections, defence spending is forecast to reach 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033–34, up from about 2.05 per cent in 2025-26. The Prime Minister launched a verbal attack on ASPI last week after it published a report criticising the government's funding trajectory. 'Seriously, they need to, I think, have a look at themselves as well and the way that they conduct themselves in debates,' Mr Albanese told ABC Radio. 'We've had a Defence Strategic Review. We've got considerable additional investment going into defence – $10 billion." Mr Jennings - who worked at ASPI for years - said Mr Albanese's comments were 'bizarre' and not reflective of someone who wanted to present himself as an 'elder statesman in Australian politics'. 'You know, Anthony Albanese, he shouldn't be so glass-jawed,' he said. 'What ASPI was saying in that report is pretty much the mainstream view of that small group of people which actually looks at defence and security, which is that we are significantly underfunded.' Mr Jennings said the current defence force was being 'cannibalised' to pay for future submarines, which he said would not materialise for 10 to 15 years. The strategic expert said Australia was facing a 'crisis situation' which was acknowledged by 'almost everyone that looks at defence'. 'Even those people that don't like the American alliance say that we need to be spending more on defence,' he said. 'So for the Prime Minister to be so sort of mean in the way he picked out ASPI I thought was bizarre.' Mr Jennings claimed it was one of China's demands of Australia to have think tanks 'shut down' that are critical of them. 'Why is the Prime Minister giving this gift to the Chinese?' he said. 'You know, he really needs to be more broad-shouldered and actually look at the content of that ASPI report, which was pretty good.' Mr Jennings argued the government had made 'virtually minimal change' to the 2016 Defence White Paper projections, which outline the strategic plan for the ADF over the following decade. The SAA director said the plan no longer fits the strategic circumstances Australia now faces with the conflict in Europe and the Middle East, and the 'much greater risk of conflict' in the Asia-Pacific region. Mr Jennings said Australia had been 'riding the coattails' of American security for the past 20 to 30 years and had now been warned by US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth to increase defence spending. 'I'm sad that Australian governments haven't seen their own way to concluding that we need to spend more on defence. But the call from Pete Hegseth is timely,' he told Sky News host Peta Credlin. "We really should be paying attention to it.' Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last week, Mr Hegseth warned the threat of China was real and potentially imminent as he pushed allies in the Indo-Pacific to spend more on their own defence needs. Mr Hegseth echoed the Trump administration's motto of maintaining 'peace through strength' and stressed the importance of restoring the 'warrior ethos'. Mr Jennings told Sky News that Mr Hegseth's plea was a 'warning from our closest ally to say we've got to get our act in order'. The strategy expert told Credlin that China's President Xi Jinping was not going to 'die wondering' about Taiwan and insisted he would make his move by the end of the decade. '(Defence Minister) Richard Marles at Shangri-La kept talking about a lack of transparency in Chinese planning. That's simply not true. Xi has been telling the military to be ready for war in 2027,' he said. 'He says it repeatedly when he gives speeches. Of course, they'd rather take over Taiwan peacefully, but I think they are more than prepared to do it militarily if they feel they have to. And something in the second half of this decade is going to happen.' Former chief of army Peter Leahy said the Prime Minister's hesitation to up defence spending was an 'abrogation of the primary responsibility' of government. 'The almost total lack of consideration of defence matters during the recent election campaign and the current focus on a far-off distant, enormously expensive force demonstrates how willing our politicians are prepared to tolerate risk,' General Leahy told The Australian. 'This is an abrogation of the primary responsibility of our elected representatives to provide for the defence and security of the nation and the safety of our servicemen and women. 'Those who wear Australia's uniform place great trust in those who task and equip them. This trust is not being honoured.' Shadow defence minister Angus Taylor said Australia must commit to increasing defence spending to at least 3 per cent, adding that Labor 'must find ways to finance it'. Mr Taylor said he worked closely with Andrew Hastie, James Paterson and Jane Hume on the Coalition's commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP within five years and 3 per cent withing a decade. 'The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens. Labor is failing to match this serious duty with funding and action. It needs to catch up or risk jeopardising Australia's safety,' Mr Taylor wrote in The Australian on Tuesday. 'We must move from rhetoric to readiness… We can't afford another decade of 'on-hold' projects. Every delay widens the gap between what Australia needs and what the ADF can actually deliver. 'Defence must be delivered, not just promised.'
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Coalition accuses Labor of failing to ‘safeguard sovereignty and freedom' amid US push for higher defence spending
United States' Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth called on Defence Minister Richard Marles to lift defence spending in a meeting on Friday at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference. Sky News Sunday Agenda understands Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will not bow to pressure to raise defence spending to three per cent of GDP. In response, Mr Paterson told Sky News Sunday Agenda that Labor was failing to match its rhetoric on national security with action. 'When it comes to defence and national security, often they (Labor) talk a good game, but they deliver very little, and Richard Marles is in that category,' Mr Paterson said. 'He talks all the time about how this is the most dangerous and uncertain strategic environment since the end of World War II, but defence spending has been flat.' Mr Marles recently admitted that the pentagon chief, Mr Hegseth, had urged him and other allies to lift defence investment. He even appeared to leave the door open to higher spending, saying the government was 'up for the conversation'. The Albanese government's existing policy so far has been to increase defence funding to 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033, which Mr Paterson said 'doesn't meet the challenge'. There has been growing concern within the defence community over aggressive activity from Russia and China in the space domain. The Coalition's policy at the federal election, in contrast to Labor, was to raise the defence budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP within five years, and 3 per cent within a decade. 'That reckons with the environment that we are dealing with in our own region. It takes it seriously and responds to it to make sure that we can safeguard our own sovereignty and our own freedom,' Mr Paterson said. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth told Sky News Sunday Agenda that the government's focus was on AUKUS, rather than more defence spending. 'Our focus, of course, is delivering what is a fundamental capability uplift in AUKUS,' Ms Rishworth said. 'AUKUS is a significant... capability uplift for Australia that is so critical. That requires incredible partnership with the US as well as the UK. 'And of course, coming from South Australia, AUKUS will have such a revolutionary impact on our city and our country. And that's what we're firmly focused on.' Mr Albanese lashed out on Thursday at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) after it published a report criticising the government's funding trajectory. 'Seriously, they need to, I think, have a look at themselves as well and the way that they conduct themselves in debates,' Mr Albanese told ABC Radio. 'We've had a Defence Strategic Review. We've got considerable additional investment going into defence – $10 billion." ASPI Executive Director Justin Bassi defended the report, saying the government was failing to meet the urgency of the global threat landscape. 'ASPI was set up to deliver the hard truths to the government of the day,' Mr Bassi told Sky News. 'Unfortunately the world has these threats that do impact Australia and to counter these threats we need to, unfortunately, spend more money in the area." Mr Albanese's highly-anticipated meeting with US President Donald Trump appears likely to occur at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis from June 15 to 17, 2025.
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Albanese holding firm on US push for 3 per cent defence spending ahead of meeting with President Trump
Sky News Sunday Agenda understands Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will not bow to US pressure to raise Australia's defence spending to three per cent of GDP. The move comes despite renewed calls from Washington and an upcoming high stakes meeting with US President Donald Trump. Instead, sources have said that Mr Albanese will stick with Labor's existing policy of increasing defence funding to 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033. The government has left open the possibility of spending more than that, but maintains that additional funding will be based on strategic necessity, not pressure from the US. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Defence Minister Richard Marles at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last week to discuss defence spending. 'Ultimately a strong, resolute and capable network of allies and partners is our key strategic advantage,' Mr Hegseth said in his keynote speech. 'China envies what we have together … but it's up to all of us to ensure that we live up to that potential by investing.' In response, Mr Marles appeared open to increasing defence spending, ahead of Mr Albanese and President Trump's first meeting. 'Clearly we have increased defence spending significantly, and that is acknowledged,' Mr Marles said in his own address. 'But we want to be making sure we are calibrating our defence spending to the strategic moment that we need to meet, so we are up for the conversation. 'The American position has been clear and its understandable, and that's a conversation that we will continue to have with the US.' However, Sky News Sunday Agenda understands Mr Albanese has no intention of shifting Labor's position on defence spending. Under the government's projections, defence spending is forecast to reach 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033–34, up from about 2.05 per cent in 2025-26. Mr Albanese lashed out on Thursday at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) after it published a report criticising the government's funding trajectory. 'Seriously, they need to, I think, have a look at themselves as well and the way that they conduct themselves in debates,' Mr Albanese told ABC Radio. 'We've had a Defence Strategic Review. We've got considerable additional investment going into defence – $10 billion." ASPI Executive Director Justin Bassi defended the report, saying the government was failing to meet the urgency of the global threat landscape. 'ASPI was set up to deliver the hard truths to the government of the day,' Mr Bassi told Sky News. 'Unfortunately the world has these threats that do impact Australia and to counter these threats we need to, unfortunately, spend more money in the area." Mr Albanese's highly-anticipated meeting with US President Donald Trump appears likely to occur at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis from June 15 to 17, 2025.
Sky News AU
5 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.
Sky News AU
5 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Analyst Malcolm Davis warns 'real risk' Labor's defence spending plan 'hollows out' ADF, rejects Anthony Albanese's ASPI criticism
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Malcolm Davis has warned there is a "real risk" the Albanese government's defence spending plans will reduce the capability of the Australian Defence Force, as he defended the think tank from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's criticism. The Prime Minister on Thursday unloaded on ASPI, demanding the think tank 'have a look at themselves' after it warned Australia could be left with a 'brittle and hollowed defence force' if military funding was not urgently increased in a recent report. Mr Albanese also took a swipe at the think tank's independence and credibility, stating ASPI's findings were 'predictable' and that the think tank "regularly produces these sort of reports'. In its latest Cost of Defence report, ASPI found that 'investment had been put off for another generation' despite the government repeatedly insisting it had made a 'generational investment' following the 2023 Defence Strategic Review. Malcolm Davis, a senior defence strategy and capability analyst at ASPI, railed against Mr Albanese's dismissive remarks, saying the suggestion the think tank had exaggerated its findings was both offensive and unsubstantiated. 'I think ASPI's perspective is that our job is to provide alternative defence advice to government and to provide contestability in the policy process,' he told Sky News Australia. 'That contestability is absolutely vital if policy is going to be effective.' Mr Davis also backed in the validity and importance of the report, reiterating the outlook for defence would remain bleak unless the government altered course and substantially boosted the nation's strategic capabilities. 'With this cost of defence report, what we've highlighted is that the strategic environment that we're now facing, as stated in the government's own policy documents, is that we are in the most challenging time since the Second World War,' he said. He also rebuked the Prime Minister's accusation the report was 'predictable', explaining the think tank had used the government's own analysis, policy papers and forward estimates to produce its findings. 'What we've determined in our own analysis, using the government's own data, is that the government is not spending sufficient amounts of money quickly enough in order to prepare for those risks," Mr Davis said. 'If you look at the government's planned defence spending, it goes to 2.33 per cent by 2033 and when you look at the strategic risks they're building up, we won't see most of that increase in defence spending until after 2027 or 2028 and into the 2030s.' Mr Davis also denounced the government's lack of foresight, stating: 'There's a real risk that what that does is it hollows out the Australian Defence Force's capability to deal with threats here and now as opposed to preparing for risks that could occur in the in the 2030s'. The report, written by former home affairs deputy secretary Marc Ablong, labelled the March budget as an 'opportunity lost' to bolster the ADF's capacities and said the government would be ill equipped to finance future defence commitments, including the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal. ASPI Executive Director Justin Bassi also responded to Mr Albanese's outburst, calling on the government to 'learn lessons from other countries and regions' about underinvesting in defence. "Our job... is not to seek praise. Obviously, no one likes criticism, but we want to enhance the debate," Ms Bassi told Sky News on Thursday. "It doesn't matter whether people agree or disagree, the public really should be told what these threats are and why the policy settings are the way they are. 'ASPI was set up to deliver the hard truths to the government of the day, regardless of who's in power."
