Review must strengthen defences

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie, an Afghanistan veteran who also served with the Special Air Service Regiment in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific, has been quick to object to the appointment of former Labor defence minister Stephen Smith to lead a major review with former defence force chief Sir Angus Houston.

As Mr Hastie pointed out, when Professor Smith, now a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, was minister, the defence budget was cut to 1.56 per cent of gross domestic product under the Gillard government – its lowest level since 1938. In the current strategic climate, however, it would be beyond comprehension if Professor Smith entertained a reduction for now or in future.

Before the election, in a speech to the Lowy Institute, Anthony Albanese recognised the need for future defence budgets “beyond 2 per cent” of GDP. As Defence Minister Richard Marles says, the 2020 Defence Strategic Update made “profound observations” in overturning the previous assumption of a decade of “strategic warning time” before an attack on Australia. “But it did leave questions hanging in the air about what we’ll do about it,” he said. “It’s really the question what we’re now going to do, which is what this review will look at.” The Prime Minister says the review will respond to “the most complex strategic environment we have encountered as a nation in over 70 years”.

During recent decades, Australia has not been short of defence reviews. This one will do the nation an important service, however, if it precipitates action on what analysts wisely have been advising in recent years. That is, that the current strategic climate demands greater missile, drone, sea mine and de-mining capabilities, as well as more secure military and ­logistics supply lines, and a ­substantially larger air force if Australia is to have any chance of defending the continent’s northern approaches.

In a challenging fiscal climate in which the government needs to repay debt, obtaining maximum benefit for defence investment will be vital. As well as expanding the defence budget as necessary, the review could offer guidance on reordering defence spending priorities. It could provide the Albanese government with the impetus to scrap or scale back defence investments that are of limited relevance to challenges created by China’s military ­expansion, increasing aggression and encroachment into the South China Sea, which is vital for Australia’s trading routes.