3 days ago
Anthony Albanese tells think tank to 'have a look at themselves' after defence report
The prime minister has lashed out at one of the country's leading security think tanks and demanded it "have a look at themselves" after it warned Australia could be left with a "brittle and hollowed defence force" if military funding was not increased.
In its latest Cost of Defence report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that despite the government's claims it made a "generational investment" in defence during the March budget, "that investment has been put off for another generation".
"The failure of this year's budget to meet that responsibility will make all Australians less secure," ASPI report author and former Home Affairs deputy secretary Mark Ablong concludes.
"Without urgent, coordinated and well resourced responses to those challenges, Australia risks a brittle and hollowed defence force, diminished industrial sovereignty, and compromised national security in a volatile Indo Pacific region."
According to the ASPI document "more and more companies" are also abandoning the Australian defence market due to the "risk averse, overly bureaucratic and delayed or abandoned project cycles".
Following the release of the ASPI report on Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hit out at the independent government-funded organisation, which Beijing has also attacked in recent years for its commentary on the Chinese Communist Party.
"Well, that's what they do, isn't it, ASPI? I mean, seriously, they need to … have a look at themselves and the way they conduct themselves in debates," Mr Albanese told ABC Radio Brisbane.
"We've had a defence strategic review. We've got considerable additional investment going into defence — $10 billion," Mr Albanese said while insisting his government was acting.
"ASPI regularly produce these sort of reports, you know, run by people who have been in a position to make a difference in the past as part of former governments.
Mr Albanese also suggested that Labor had plans to lift defence expenditure up to 2.4 per cent of GDP, but under the government's projections, defence spending is expected to reach 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033-34, up from its current level of 2.02 per cent.
Last year a government-commissioned review of public support for national security research, which was led by former bureaucrat Peter Varghese, recommended an overhaul of funding for ASPI and other similar institutions.
Inside Labor circles, there has been growing disquiet at the direction of ASPI under the leadership of Justin Bassi, a former Liberal Party staffer who was appointed to the role by then-defence minister Peter Dutton in 2022.
However, following the release of the Varghese review last year, former Labor MP and now senior fellow at ASPI, David Feeney, criticised the government's response to the document.
"The recommendation to close the ASPI office in Washington DC is a misstep, particularly at a time when AUKUS is so important," the former parliamentary secretary for defence told the ABC in December.
"While the DFAT [Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] viewpoint that it should enjoy a monopoly on the Australia-US relationship is explicable, the fact remains that civil society is important to the alliance relationship too."
