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Australian shadow minister for defence and former SAS officer Andrew Hastie has called for Defence spending to be brought forward to 2026 and for the strengthening of the Australian Defence Force to “tear the arm off any adversary”.
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Hastie met with defence industry representatives during the annual Defence Connect Budget Summit to unpack the opposition's response to this week's federal budget, and spoke following remarks from Defence Industry minister Pat Conroy.
During a speech presented by Hastie, the shadow minister for defence raised a possible scenario in which the People’s Republic of China managed to deploy a missile threat into the Indo-Pacific Island chain. He questioned what response Australia could provide and whether it was currently equipped to successfully handle such a situation.
In addition, he encouraged the federal government to clarify their position on the threat posed by the People’s Republic of China and detailed the opposition’s key priorities for a potentially re-elected government under the leadership of Peter Dutton.
The national defence strategy is a failure ... the (Albanese) government has neither articulated the threats Australia faces or adapted to the world of today, he said.
Hastie encouraged Australia to bring Defence spending forward to 2026 before the next decade.
“(Under this week’s federal budget) Spending is being pushed out until next decade ... we will be weaker before we get stronger, this is dangerous (because) weakness is provocative,” he said.
He also detailed priorities to fix recruiting by exploring incentives for service, bringing investment forward to 2026 as a guiding star of government, strengthening military to military relationships and sovereign capability.
“The ADF should be able to tear the arm off an adversary,” Hastie said, citing the old English epic tail of Beowulf.
In addition, Hastie outlined clarification of an “axis of authoritarian states” such as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea that were arrayed against and seeking to disrupt the US-led alliance.
