NewsBite

Defence spending

Advertisement
House push to build more ships has questioned Australia’s commitment to AUKUS and its readiness to help the US fight China.

‘Noticeably fickle’: Trump’s new submarine chief a critic of Australia

Jerry Hendrix, who leads a White House push to build more ships and submarines, has often questioned Australia’s commitment to AUKUS and its readiness to help the US fight China.

  • Michael Koziol

Latest

Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, at the Aspen Security Forum.

Rudd pushes back on US claim that Australia needs to ‘step up’ on defence

“We’re pretty bullish about our contribution,” Australia’s ambassador to the US said amid calls for Canberra to increase defence spending as part of the AUKUS agreement.

  • Michael Koziol
AUKUS critic Elbridge Colby and Anthony Albanese.

He’s a sceptic. So what might Colby recommend to Trump on AUKUS?

Donald Trump’s defence undersecretary Elbridge Colby is reviewing the AUKUS pact and could suggest big changes, but defence experts say some of those ideas are non-starters.

  • Brittany Busch
Illustration by Simon Letch

Trump wants us to spend a bomb on defence. We should think twice

We’re told that our defence spending must be greatly increased. But if Trump and the gleeful defenceniks have their way, we’ll be poorer and no safer.

  • Ross Gittins
Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump.

Albanese won’t say if Australia would follow the US to war over Taiwan

After this masthead confirmed the Pentagon wants the question answered, the Prime Minister reiterated the submarine pact was for “peace and security in our region”.

  • Paul Sakkal and Michael Koziol
Donald Trump and Elon Musk effectively dismantled USAID overnight, a move projected to cost 14 million lives by the end of the decade.

Bigger defence budgets are more often a prelude to war, not peace

USAid cuts are predicted to kill 14 million people in the next five years. As the world squabbles over defence spending, the deaths are beginning.

  • Tim Costello
Advertisement
A missile is launched from an unspecified location in China in response to then US speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022.

As China prepares to invade Taiwan, a reality check: sitting on the sidelines won’t help us

Australia must prepare. China attacking Taiwan is not inevitable, but if it happens, it will become a wide-ranging Indo-Pacific conflict.

  • Jennifer Parker
Anthony Albanese is still to meet Donald Trump in person.

Trump demand on Australian defence spending would leave $200b crater in budget

The mounting pressure from Washington comes as the Albanese government grapples with the ballooning cost of NDIS and pressure from states to spend more on health.

  • Michael Koziol, James Massola and Millie Muroi
Australia will acquire boats based on the Astute-class submarines in the long term and Virginia-class submarines from the US to fill a capability gap.

Cook heads for UK in bid to save AUKUS and build more nuclear submarines in WA

AUKUS has been on thin ice since Donald Trump announced the US will review its stance on it. Premier Roger Cook is travelling to the UK in a bid to get the deal back on track and lobby for more nuclear submarines to be built in WA.

Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump will meet on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

Defence ties with Australia key to Albanese’s pitch in historic Trump meeting

In one of the most important meetings of his career, Anthony Albanese will put access to critical minerals on the table while safeguarding AUKUS.

  • James Massola

Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/topic/defence-spending-1mps