Angus Aitken bets Anthony Albanese will never meet Trump

Broker Angus Aitken has placed a bet that Anthony Albanese will never get a meeting with Donald Trump if he does not reconsider higher defence spending.

Angus Aitken, right, believes Anthony Albanese won't get a meeting with Donald Trump unless he considers meeting US demands for higher defence spending.

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Prominent Sydney broker Angus Aitken has placed a bet that Anthony Albanese will never get a meeting with Donald Trump if he does not reconsider higher spending on defence and push back harder on China’s view that Australia should not spend more.

In a note to investors, some of whom are known to include Australia’s richest person, resources queen Gina Rinehart, Mr Aitken said Mr Albanese would not lift defence spending beyond the current goal of 2.3 per cent of GDP by 2033-34.

Mr Trump has demanded 3.5 per cent of GDP and pushed NATO nations into agreeing to hit 5 per cent, including 3.5 per cent core funding by 2035.

“If I was a betting man, which I am, I will bet that Trump will never meet up with Albo unless he massively increases defence spending like we have seen from the Europeans,” Mr Aitken said.

“I guarantee there will be zero meeting with Trump until this happens.”

Part of Mr Aitken’s bet is also that the Albanese government would not criticise China’s rhetoric that Australia should not be revving up defence spending.

“You gotta love the op-ed from the Chinese ambassador in the (The Australian) today telling us to ignore calls for more defence spending,” he said on Monday. “This is the guy representing a country live-firing missiles off our coast with zero warning.”

“People in the defence-related worlds tell us Albo has absolutely zero interest in doing anything involving the use of his spine, including in his response when the Chinese warship was live-firing off the coast,” Mr Aitken said.

Mr Aitken has previously been a top donor for the Liberal Party, but revealed in the days after its May election wipeout that he will be pulling his support for now over its shocking performance.

Mr Aitken privately harbours concerns that security around Australia’s top resources export ports is not adequate.

The Australian Navy’s fleet is its smallest and oldest in decades.

It has just three guided missile destroyers – its most powerful vessels – but only two are typically available at any one time.

The nation’s six Collins-class submarines are at the end of their lives, and so unreliable that just one of the boats was available to put to sea late last year, with the rest undergoing repairs.

The navy’s Anzac-class frigate fleet has been reduced to seven after the retirement of its flagship vessel last year, while another is due to be paid off next year.

At the same time, the troubled Hunter-class frigate program won’t produce its first ship until the early 2030s at the earliest, while the first of a new fleet of general purpose frigates isn’t due in service until the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, the ADF’s long-range missile stocks are believed to be sufficient for only a few days of serious combat, while the government is also yet to order key missile defence batteries, and has virtually no armed drones or counter-drone capabilities.

The heightened attention on defence spending comes as Australia’s total government interest bill comes close to exceeding the defence budget for the first time, crimping its ability to meet growing costs across the board.

The combined state and federal government interest bill is about 1.4 per cent of GDP, but Westpac projects it will hit 2.2 per cent by the 2027-28 financial year.