Election 2022: Peter Dutton’s fighting words: prepare for war

Defence Minister Peter Dutton says Australians must ‘prepare for war’ and ‘stare down any act of aggression’ to ensure peace and stability in the region.

Peter Dutton on Monday. Picture: Nine News

Defence Minister Peter Dutton says Australians must “prepare for war” and “stare down any act of aggression” to ensure peace and stability in the region amid an escalating threat of Chinese influence in the Pacific and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Scott Morrison has also warned that autocratic challenges to the rules-based order were threatening democratic freedoms secured in previous wars, as he denounced an increasingly belligerent Russia and China.

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles’ however, accused the ­Coalition of “beating its chest” on defence while failing to deliver for the nation’s strategic interests, with Australia facing the most “complex” set of strategic circumstances seen since World War II.

Mr Dutton’s comments marked an escalation in the government’s rhetoric on foreign affairs and came as thousands gathered across the country to commemorate the efforts of Australian servicemen and women.

He said the war in Ukraine was a reminder of how Australia must continue to fight against the rise of autocratic forces in the world.

Mr Dutton said it was important to “be frank” about escalating threats in the region, and that people like Hitler were not “consigned to history”.

“The only way you can preserve peace is to prepare for war, and be strong as a country,” Mr Dutton told Nine. “Not to cower, not to be on bended knee and be weak. That’s the reality. Curling up in a ball, pretending nothing is happening, saying nothing, that is not going to be in our long-term interests and we should be very honest about that.

“We have to be realistic that people like Hitler and others aren’t just a figment of our imagination or that they’re consigned to history. We have in President Putin, at the moment, somebody who is willing to kill women and children. That’s happening in the year 2022.”

Speaking at the Darwin Cenotaph War Memorial at dawn, the Prime Minister said the peaceful, democratic world was facing threats from increasingly coercive forces such as China and Russia.

Acknowledging that “war does stalk Europe again”, Mr Morrison paid tribute to veterans and serving Australians who had fought to defend democratic values and freedoms. “An arc of autocracy is challenging the rules-based order our grandparents had secured and democratic freedoms,” he said. “Peoples are standing together again in facing this world; we must remember again … it is only then that we truly appreciate what these times require.”

Mr Marles did not say whether he agreed with Mr Dutton’s assertions but he attacked the ­Coalition for failing to prepare the nation for strategic complications in the region.

He had represented federal Labor at the service in Darwin alongside Labor MPs Terri Butler and Luke Gosling and senator Malarndirri McCarthy.

Anthony Albanese remains in isolation at his Sydney home after testing positive to Covid-19. Mr Marles said the Coalition had cycled through six defence ministers in nine years. “This is the government which beats its chest when it comes to actually delivering and doing what needs to be done, this is a government that repeatedly fails … as it has in its relationships in the Pacific, in the sale of the port of Darwin.”

Labor has been highly critical of the government’s “lack of engagement” with Solomon Islands to prevent the deal tit signed with China.