Why Chinese warships off the coast were no bad thing for Australia

Why is anyone surprised?

If anything, we should be thanking the Chinese government for their naval journey last week. With it, they have focused our minds and reminded us about the things that matter.

People’s Liberation Army-Navy Renhai-class cruiser Zunyi and Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu in the Tasman Sea.Credit: Australian Defence Force

The shock that greeted the navigation of three Chinese warships through the Tasman Sea en route to what appears to be a circumnavigation of Australia, and their subsequent live firing exercises, was perhaps the most surprising thing about this incident.

Anyone with a passing interest in national security has been warning about the repercussions of China possessing a blue water navy for more than a decade. Last week was simply a manifestation of the changed world that we now live in. The relative stability of the Cold War by comparison, and the quarter-century of Western hegemony of the globe since, are now a thing of the past.

But the media, and our polity in general, seemed not to see the wood for the trees – or the sea for the ships in this case.

Instead of focusing on what the government knew when, isn’t the more important question what are we doing about defending our nation?

This kind of activity will be the norm in the future, not the exception. That’s the reality.

China and the United States are the world’s only superpowers, and China possesses a navy that can traverse the Pacific. It is going to send its navy to do whatever it wants to do in the region, whenever it wants to. It is entirely within the rules of international law, meaning there is nothing we can do about it.

Many Australians also seem to have missed a salient fact – our own navy conducts freedom of navigation operations in the waters of the South China Sea whenever we want to show that these waters are not Chinese and are international thoroughfares for trade and the navies of many nations, including ours. We also conduct live firing exercises at sea. No wonder the Chinese government reacted with bemusement at being criticised.

I am no apologist for the Chinese government, nor have I ever been considered anything other than a hawk, including when I held the defence and defence industry portfolios in the Turnbull and Morrison governments. But I did find the faux outrage at the presence of the flotilla a touch hypocritical.

Rather than wringing our hands, what should we be doing? The simple answer is that we need to spend more money on defence.

Of course, it’s hardly surprising that I, a lobbyist advising Australian and international defence companies, am saying we should be spending more. But I say this as someone who served as a minister for defence and defence industry, and who knows the reality of the situation well.

Though the percentage of Australia’s gross domestic product spent on defence has steadily grown since the early 2010s (from consistently below 2 per cent of GDP to now consistently above and tracking towards 2.3 per cent), it needs to keep going.

The Trump administration is variously demanding that NATO countries increase their spending to anything from 3 to 5per cent of their GDP. It won’t be long before they demand the same of Australia.

Spending on guided weapons and explosive ordnance, ships, planes, unmanned vessels of every kind, surveillance, satellites, radars, land vehicles, small arms and ammunition and personnel, doesn’t come cheap, and it never stops.

The opposition’s weekend announcement that a Dutton government will invest in the purchase of 28 more of the 35A Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters at a cost of over $3 billion is something that will be noticed in Beijing. It would take our Joint Strike Fighter capability to 100 platforms. In addition to the other air platforms that Australia deploys to protect our skies and coastline, like the Poseidon anti-submarine surveillance aircraft and the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare super hornets, this is a significant lethal offensive air capability.

Similarly, the confirmation from Defence Minister Richard Marles last week that the replacement vessels for the ANZAC frigates will be decided and announced by the end of 2025 and not delayed into 2026 was welcome news. These new general purpose frigates, along with the Hunter Class anti-submarine warfare frigates, the Air Warfare Destroyers, the upgrades of the Collins Class submarines and the arrival of the first Virginia Class nuclear-powered submarines, will give us a more capable naval defence force than at any time since World War II.

Anthony Albanese chairs the National Security Committee, and Peter Dutton is a former defence minister. They both have knowledge that can’t be shared widely because of its sensitivity. But the truth is, they know that we have no time to dither or argue, nor the luxury of a national conversation about who knew what about the Chinese naval group and when.

The events of last week need to be used as a springboard for action, and the energy of the discourse focused on decision-making, learning lessons and cracking on with capability.

Christopher Pyne is the executive chairman of lobbying firm Pyne and Partners, and is an adviser to Australian and overseas defence companies that would profit from increased defence spending. He is a former minister in the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments.

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