This brief has been updated since Senate estimates hearings on the Defence portfolio on 14...
Defence Budget
Poor performance won’t improve while it is kept hidden
The Government has just tabled its ‘Portfolio Additional Estimates Statement’ in the Parliament to...
Questions on Defence’s mid-year budget update
The Defence 2023-24 Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements (PAES) were published on Thursday 8...
Lavishly funded but broke: Australia’s Defence Department needs a zero-based budget
The Australian Defence Department is broke. That must sound outrageous to almost every other...
2024 with a bang: Escalating war with de-escalating words, May Budget expectations & broken disposals
2024 with a bang: Escalating war with de-escalating words, May budget expectations & broken...
Indicators & warnings for a troubled Defence Force – & an unwanted but necessary Christmas gift
The Christmas-New Year Edition - indicators and warnings for the Defence Force - and a Christmas...
2024: elections in a fragmenting world; Future Fund forgets Australian industry – & export controls, again
Episode 9 - 2024: global elections bring a fragmenting world, investing everywhere but into...
Awkward truths about US and UK AUKUS challenges
Three reports over the past two months are required reading for anyone involved in or scrutinising...
A glimpse of things to come – AUKUS hastens slowly
Last weekend the three AUKUS defence ministers met in California to reflect on what their joint...
As Defence’s core functions fail, what’s the plan for change?
A defence force has to have three things work well to be effective: it has to recruit and retain...
Landing craft create paths for shipbuilding
Finally there is some good news in the defence shipbuilding space. On Thursday 24 November, the...
AUKUS Plan B: delivering greater military power faster – the B-21 Raider
After the release of the damning – self-written – summary of the Defence leadership’s failed...
The Travel and Accountability edition: Tuvalu, leadership failure and the Hunter frigates – and the B-21
The Travel and Accountability Edition: Tuvalu, leadership failure & the Hunter frigates, and the...
Hoping no one joins the dots: what Mr Albanese’s three visit journey shows the world
You have to wonder what Joe Biden, Xi Jinping and Cook Islands’ Mark Brown make of prime minister...
Aust-US alliance is thriving in new areas, less healthy at its military core
Anthony Albanese’s visit to America has done three things. It has broadened the ambition for the...