ADF needs funds to mitigate risk

Despite shortsighted resistance from Anthony Albanese, momentum is building in favour of his government lifting defence spending. While pushing back against comparisons to other countries such as Britain, which will spend 3 per cent of GDP on defence, the Prime Minister, speaking in Perth on Tuesday, did not categorically rule out lifting Australia’s investment in defence. Asked if he was sticking to the goal of lifting defence spending to 2.3 per cent of GDP, he did not slam the door but said: “We’ll continue to invest in our capability and in our ­relationships.”

At the Australian Strategic Policy Institute conference in Canberra on Wednesday, it was increasingly clear that the current commitment was inadequate to meet the nation’s security needs. The defence force was “fully expending” its budget and as its acquisition increased, the government would need to make decisions, Chief of the Defence Force David Johnston said. Defence was “improving our view of what we need to do around readiness”, Admiral Johnston said, and “that does put pressure on a budget that we have to make choices on”.

Defence Minister Richard Marles is “very much up for the conversation” with the US about Australia increasing defence spending, after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Mr Marles to lift it to 3.5 per cent of GDP “as soon as possible”. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy appears to agree. He told the ASPI conference that the government was open to discussing increasing defence spending, Rhiannon Down reports. But he made it clear he opposed the recent ASPI report criticising the level of spending.

The Chinese Communist Party has denounced Mr Marles for spreading the “China threat”, which suggests the Deputy Prime Minister is taking the right approach. As Will Glasgow writes from Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the US, Japan, Australia (represented by Mr Marles) and The Philippines after the four allies met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last weekend to discuss shared concerns about Beijing’s use of force and coercion in the East China and South China seas. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a press conference on Tuesday the US, Japan, Australia and The Philippines “brazenly spread the false accusation of (the) ‘China threat’ … to sow discord and incite confrontation between regional countries. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes it, and has made serious protests.”

But the new Republican co-chairman of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus, Michael McCaul, told The Australian in Washington that Australia’s defence spending should send a strong message that the CCP’s belligerence would have consequences. Chinese leader Xi Jinping would “continue his aggression in the Indo-Pacific and beyond until it’s clear that the cost is too great”, Mr McCaul told Joe Kelly. “With tensions in the Indo-Pacific reaching a breaking point, deterrence in the region could prove key to preventing a World War III scenario.” The Friends of Australia Caucus has grown to a record 111 members across the US political spectrum. That matters. Our principal security alliance has rarely mattered more.

But Australia must do our part. As former army chief Peter Leahy wrote this week, the government needs to moderate the risks borne by all Australians, especially men and women in uniform, amid the deteriorating global strategic situation.