Albanese fires back at ASPI in defence spat

The PM escalates Labor’s campaign against the taxpayer-funded institute, attacking its credibility after it warned a refusal to boost defence funding had produced a ‘paper’ military unprepared for conflict.

Anthony Albanese on Thursday. Picture: NewsWire / Richard Gosling

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Anthony Albanese has escalated the government’s campaign against the taxpayer-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute, attacking its credibility and independence after it warned Labor’s refusal to boost defence funding had produced a “paper” military unprepared for conflict.

The Prime Minister disputed the findings of ASPI’s new Cost of Defence report, declaring the think tank’s work was “predictable” and attacking its links to the Coalition.

ASPI executive director Justin Bassi hit back, arguing the institute was set up to “deliver the hard truths to the government of the day, regardless of who’s in power”.

The stoush follows the government’s move last year to clip ASPI’s wings, forcing it to compete for funding and subjecting it to fresh bureaucratic oversight.

The latest ASPI report, by former Home Affairs deputy secretary Mark Ablong, follows a raft of criticism by defence analysts making a similar point – that the defence budget is stretched to breaking point by the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, undermining the ADF’s present-day readiness.

But Mr Albanese argued the government was pumping money into defence, investing an additional $10bn into new military capabilities over the next decade.

“ASPI regularly produce these sort of reports... 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.”

Mr Albanese alluded to Mr Bassi’s past role as chief-of-staff to former foreign minister Marise Payne, arguing the think tank was “run by people who’ve been in a position to make a difference in the past as part of former governments”.

Mr Bassi defended the organisation, declaring: “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. We are not saying there is no defence spending; there’s already a lot. But 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. We must learn lessons from other countries and regions, including Europe, where they under-invested in defence for years, lost deterrence and are now spending far more than they were supposedly saving.”

The opposition’s new defence spokesman, Angus Taylor, said the report was a warning light the government should not ignore.

“Labor has chronically underfunded our defence forces because it can’t manage the budget and the economy,” he said.

“The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens. Labor is failing to match this serious duty with funding and action. It needs to catch up or risk putting Australia’s safety at risk.”

Former ASPI executive director Peter Jennings also endorsed what he said was “an excellent, accurate report which reflects what everyone is thinking who looks seriously at defence”.

“I thought it was a bizarre, glass-jawed reaction from the Prime Minister,” Mr Jennings said. “He knows they are badly failing on defence spending and it can’t be fixed by blustering about it. In so many areas, this is the way they react to informed criticism of their policies.”

The chair of ASPI’s governing council, former Labor MP Gai Brodtmann, declined to comment on the Prime Minister’s attack.

Former deputy prime minister John Anderson, who is also on the council, issued a statement in his personal capacity, backing the institution established by the Howard government in 2001. “We had the guts to set something up so that we could get fearless advice in the national interest on something that the Deputy Prime Minister (Richard Marles) keeps saying is the most important responsibility of the federal government – defending the nation,” Mr Anderson said.

“Does the current Prime Minister not have the same level of courage as the previous prime minister (John Howard)? And is he aware that one of our senior fellows is, in fact, the last Labor defence minister who was truly respected, Kim Beazley?”

Mr Beazley has previously called for the government to lift defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP, which the Albanese government has declined to do despite worsening strategic circum­stances and calls by the Trump administration for Australia to reach the benchmark.

ASPI receives about $7.5m in federal government funding a year. Under the government’s changes, it will have to compete for its core funding every five years, and have a senior bureaucrat installed as an observer on its council.

Critics argued the new rules played into China’s hands, after Beijing accused the think tank of “anti-China research” and called for it to be defunded.

The Cost of Defence report warned Labor’s focus on future military capabilities and its “business as usual” defence budget was hollowing out the force, leaving it with limited munitions stockpiles and a shortage of critical capabilities including missile defence systems and long-range weapons.

The budget left defence spending languishing at about 2 per cent of GDP, rising to a forecast 2.33 per cent by 2033-24. It brought forward just $1bn worth of spending, despite the cost of the AUKUS program, which won’t deliver a meaningful nuclear submarine force for at least a decade.

The report argued the “slow pace” of procuring key systems “risks leaving the ADF ill-prepared for current threats and unable to keep pace with future challenges, ­creating a ‘no man’s land’ of preparedness”. It said other Indo-Pacific ­nations were rearming “much faster than us”.