Latest news with #waste
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Australian Defence Force needs ‘waste' cuts, not more cash: Jacqui Lambie
Australia should be looking to cut 'waste' in the Australian Defence Force before looking to pump more cash into it, independent senator Jacqui Lambie says. Senator Lambie on Monday reacted to the Trump administration calling on Canberra to boost the defence budget amid increased Chinese aggression the Indo-Pacific. A veteran and fierce advocate for the ADF, Senator Lambie quipped that the Albanese government should 'just ask Donald Trump to give us their money back for our submarines mate'. 'It'd be nice to lift our defence spending – there is no doubt about that,' she told Sky News. 'Things are pretty tough out there at the moment, but I think it's more the waste. 'We waste so much money in defence procurement, and that's where we should be looking.' Senator Lambie pointed to the drawn-out build timelines for the AUKUS submarines. Under the trilateral defence pact, Australia is set to build five of the nuclear-powered boats in South Australia. The first is expected to be finished by the early 2040s. 'You've only got to see those submarines,' Senator Lambie said. 'Four billion dollars so far – we haven't got one scrap of bloody steel sitting in a harbour yet ready to go. 'I mean, that is just disgusting waste at its best.' Washington's call for Australia to step up military spending came from a bilateral meeting between Defence Minister Richard Marles and his US defence counterpart Pete Hegseth. The two senior officials met over the weekend on the sidelines of the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore over the weekend. My first bilateral meeting at the 2025 Shangri-La Dialogue was with @SecDef, our second catch up since he stepped into the role earlier this year. We discussed avenues for further economic and security cooperation, and our unwavering commitment to the Indo-Pacific. — Richard Marles (@RichardMarlesMP) May 30, 2025 In a read out, the US Embassy said the two senior officials 'discussed aligning investment to the security environment in the Indo-Pacific, accelerating US force posture initiatives in Australia, advancing defence industrial base co-operation, and creating supply chain resilience'. 'On defence spending, Secretary Hegseth conveyed that Australia should increase its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of its GDP as soon as possible,' the embassy said. Mr Hegseth used his address at the Shangri La Dialogue to warn of an 'imminent' threat from China, saying Beijing could invade Taiwan as early as 2027. Such a move would deal a major blow to global supply of semiconductors and likely massively disrupt vital trade routes. 'Let me be clear, any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world,' Mr Hegseth told the conference. 'There's no reason to sugar-coat it. The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent. 'We hope not but certainly could be.' Asked what Australia could do in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Senator Lambie replied: 'I don't know, have you seen the size of the Chinese army? 'That's the first thing, and the second thing is this – have you seen the condition that ours is in?' 'We have a personnel crisis in our military, and something needs to be done. 'The only way young people are going to go and join is when people in that uniform go out there and brag how great that job (is).' She said the recruitment crisis was 'the biggest problem you have with our national security right now'. 'People do not want to join defence, and people do not want to stay in,' Senator Lambie said. She also said Australian troops were 'not in the condition to being in a war zone'. Labor has pushed back against Mr Hegseth's call to lift the defence budget, with Anthony Albanese saying his government was already spending record amounts on the military. Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Thistlethwaite on Monday echoed the Prime Minister. 'We are increasing our defence spending over the course of the next three years,' Mr Thistlethwaite told Sky News. 'Defence spending increases by about 10½ billion dollars and about $50bn over the course of the next decade.' Mr Thistlethwaite added that the Albanese government was increasing defence spending to '2½ per cent of GDP', including through AUKUS. The Trump administration's demand came just days after a leading defence think tank said Australia must bolster its immediate readiness to go to war or risk having a 'paper ADF'. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute warned that while Labor was spending on longer-term projects it was not pumping nearly enough cash into keeping Australia combat-ready in the near term.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Elon built the DOGE rocket and it's going to keep flying
Elon Musk has led the Department of Government Efficiency to incredible success in a mere four months, exposing hundreds of billions of dollars in government waste. However, with his tenure as a special government employee ending, what becomes of DOGE and the waste it's identified? What about Tesla and SpaceX? The answers to all these questions are incredibly positive. Musk's success in so many fields is no accident. The man has an uncanny ability not only as an executive who optimizes institutions and procedures, but also as a delegator. After he gets a project going, he expertly selects someone to take his place, freeing himself up for other ventures. This explains why Musk is able to run so many different, but still wildly successful businesses, including Tesla, Starlink, X Corporation, the Boring Company, Neuralink, and others. He consistently replaces himself with capable people who can take over operations in his stead. This model of leadership handoff in the private sector has translated to the public sector with DOGE, so the American people should anticipate continued success from the Department, even now that Mr. Musk has departed. DOGE has made remarkable progress, yet they've still only scratched the surface. The reality is that the federal budget is almost $7.5 trillion, and it'll take a considerable amount of time for the DOGE crew to work their way through it all. That said, the early progress made by Mr. Musk specifically and DOGE broadly is all the more remarkable because of all the roadblocks thrown in their way. Activist judges were constantly ordering a halt to DOGE's activities, while apparatchiks left over from the Biden administration purposely hid information and tried to torpedo DOGE's investigations. As each roadblock is removed, however, the pace at which DOGE works through the federal budget is steadily increasing, and that will continue even after Mr. Musk's departure. This is not the end of a book, but simply a new chapter. DOGE has been successful in two key areas. First, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the Department has cast blindingly bright light on all manner of abuse, corruption, fraud, and waste—all of which the political establishment would have liked to have kept hidden from public view. By making the American public aware of how their tax dollars are being wasted, political pressure was created to stop that waste. But it all required knowledge of the problem. Before DOGE, for example, there was no proof that over 12.3 million people were 120 years old or older in the Social Security system, a clear sign of fraud. They have now been correctly labeled as deceased to prevent illegitimate payments. Likewise, the public was completely unaware that the Treasury Department was distributing money with no way of tracking where it was going. Because of DOGE, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve now label every payment, so the spending of tax dollars can be tracked. While some of the waste identified by DOGE can simply be ended by executive action, much of it will need to be clawed back by Congress. To that end, DOGE cuts will begin to be codified into law as early as next week when the White House begins sending recission packages to Congress, the first of which will be over $9 billion. That's a good start, but only a start with the aforementioned $7-trillion-plus budget. To realize the hundreds of billions of dollars in potential cuts that DOGE has already identified (and much more in anticipated cuts) will require additional recission packages—and in some cases, new legislation. As for Mr. Musk and his many companies, they have bright futures because of their leader's proven track record of success. While companies like Tesla have seen turbulent stock prices over the past few months, that has largely mirrored the broader stock market, as opposed to being a reflection on Tesla's valuation specifically. Furthermore, Tesla's share price has risen 60% since failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Waltz infamously mocked the previous decline in Tesla's share price. Who's laughing now? Whether it's Tesla, DOGE, or X Corporation, the future looks very bright. Mr. Musk has a real knack for building both metaphorical and literal rocket ships.
CNN
3 days ago
- Business
- CNN
Smerconish Commentary: I'm not thrilled that Elon Musk is out
Michael Smerconish delves into why he's willing to give Musk and President Trump some credit for sparking a conversation about waste, fraud and abuse. "Well, Musk at least stepped into the arena, was willing to take his lumps, and made an effort," Smerconish said.
CNN
3 days ago
- Business
- CNN
Smerconish Commentary: I'm not thrilled that Elon Musk is out
Michael Smerconish delves into why he's willing to give Musk and President Trump some credit for sparking a conversation about waste, fraud and abuse. "Well, Musk at least stepped into the arena, was willing to take his lumps, and made an effort," Smerconish said.
Fox News
4 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Caroline Sunshine On The Future Of DOGE Post-Musk 'Ethos Should Remain In Our Federal Government'
Trump 2024 Campaign Deputy Communications Director Caroline Sunshine joins Fox Across America With guest host Paul Gleiser to give her take on Elon Musk's departure from the Department of Government Efficiency, and the impact he's had on highlighting wasteful government spending. 'I think DOGE's mission and ethos will remain. I know that Doge has staffers now in every agency in the federal government, but I think it's a lesson sometimes in humility, I guess is the lesson I would say for our listeners in that, I know we all know that the bloat and the spending in our government is bad and it's wasteful and it's corrupt and we think we have a full picture of just how bad it is, but I promise you, however bad you think it is it's 10 times worse. And what you're seeing, Elon came in with the goal of two trillion they've been able to do far less than that. It's just hard to grasp the enormity of the waste, fraud and abuse that exists in our government and the way that it is structured, and I have seen many a brilliant businessman, many a brilliant mind sort of be humbled at thinking they can apply the same ethos and the same logic that they use in their very successful private enterprises and apply that to the federal government and think that they can get the same result. Sometimes it works. Sometimes what you find is you've got a cutaway even more fat than you think. So I'm optimistic about the future of DOGE. I think that ethos should 100% remain in our federal government, and in our administration. And it's something the administration should double down on over the next four years, because I believe that's how long it's going to take to get this done and do it and do it right. Thus is the nature of the Leviathan of our government.' Caroline Sunshine On The Big-Tent Movement Trump Created Listen to the podcast to hear the full conversation!
