Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has lashed out at a prominent think tank that accused the government of failing to spend enough on defence and leaving the Australian Defence Force unprepared for conflict.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s annual analysis of defence spending, released on Thursday, found a lack of short-term defence funding was creating a “paper ADF that lacks readiness for near‑term conflict scenarios” at a time of rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific.
Australian army soldiers train at RAAF Base Tindal, Northern Territory.Credit: Pfc. Matthew Mackintosh / Department of Defence
“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,” the ASPI report said.
The report, written by former Home Affairs deputy secretary Marc Ablong, described the March budget as an “opportunity lost” to boost the ADF’s capabilities before major projects such as the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines are delivered in the next decade.
Asked to comment on the report’s findings, Albanese said: “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.”
Albanese said the government had commissioned a defence strategic review and invested an extra $10 billion into the military over a decade.
“ASPI regularly produce these sorts of reports, you know, run by people who’ve been in a position to make a difference in the past as part of former governments,” he said.
“I think it’s predictable, frankly. What we’re doing is getting on with the defence assets and providing the investment for those assets to be upgraded.”
The government has had a contentious relationship with the Canberra think tank, which is led by former Coalition adviser Justin Bassi and has taken a hawkish approach to the Chinese Communist Party.
A review of think tank funding commissioned by the government and released last year called for ASPI to lose funding for its Washington office and be forced to compete with other organisations for funds.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said ASPI needed to think about how it was conducting itself.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The government accepted these recommendations.
ASPI currently receives about $8 million a year in government funding, including a block grant from the Defence Department, while also raising funds from foreign governments, defence firms and other sponsors.
Bassi, who served as chief of staff to former defence minister Marise Payne and as a national security adviser to Malcolm Turnbull, responded to Albanese’s comments by saying: “ASPI was set up to deliver the hard truths to the government of the day, regardless of who’s in power.
“Our charter requires us to provide alternative advice to government and increase public understanding and discussion. That’s what we’ve been doing for 24 years and what we’ve done today with this report, which is based on the government’s own numbers.”
The report called for the government to quickly lift defence spending to 3 per cent of gross domestic product, the same level as nominated by the Trump administration and other experts.
“The government’s own assessment is that we are now living in increasingly dangerous times. That requires increased defence spending – not to bring on war but to deter it,” Bassi said.
“We must learn lessons from other countries and regions, including Europe, where they underinvested in defence for years, lost deterrence and are now spending far more than they were supposedly saving.”
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