by Michael Shoebridge, Peter Jennings and Marcus Hellyer | Nov 29, 2024 | Defence Budget, Policy, Strategy & Capability, Ukraine
This is the third report in the IPA-SAA Blueprint for Defence series that provides an action plan for reforming Defence. This new report focuses on what needs to change in how Defence acquires weapons and systems. It sets out how the Government in office after next...
by Marcus Hellyer | Nov 28, 2024 | Defence Budget, Policy, Strategy & Capability
Last year the US Navy’s Ghost Fleet visited Australia. This squadron consists of uncrewed surface vessels that are capable of long-range autonomous operations, a capability the Royal Australian Navy doesn’t yet have. But Australia does have its own ghost fleet: the...
by Peter Jennings | Nov 28, 2024 | Policy
The Labor government’s mis- and disinformation bill died in the Senate this week and rightly so. The bill was a power grab for information control, giving bureaucrats oversight over how social media platforms would find and fix information “reasonably verifiable as...
by Michael Shoebridge | Nov 26, 2024 | China, Indo Pacific, Policy
Back in 2017, early into Donald Trump’s first term as US President, China’s Communist Party leader Xi Jinping turned up to the Davos world economic forum and told the assembled corporate heavyweights and global leaders that China embraced globalisation and was...
by Peter Jennings | Nov 25, 2024 | China, Policy
Anthony Albanese described his dialogue with Xi Jinping in Brazil last Monday as “crucial” and his personal engagement with the Chinese leader as steering a “patient, calibrated and deliberate approach (that) created many thousands of new jobs in Australia” The two...
by Sam Bashfield and Anthony Bergin | Nov 25, 2024 | Indo Pacific, Policy
This week a 1200m undersea fibre-optic cable linking Finland and Germany was severed. The two countries said in a joint statement that they were investigating the incident, which “immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage”. Europe’s security is...
by Marcus Hellyer | Nov 18, 2024 | Defence Budget, Policy, Strategy & Capability, Uncategorized
Australian defence industry is struggling through a period of cognitive dissonance. The Albanese government keeps declaring that it is spending unprecedented amounts on defence capability, yet Australian medium and small defence firms are struggling, with many on life...
by Anthony Bergin | Nov 18, 2024 | Policy
As a child growing up in Melbourne, I remember lining up outside the huge display windows of Myer at Christmas, wide-eyed in wonder at the snowy dioramas. This year anti-Israel agitators announced their intent to disrupt the Christmas windows launch scheduled for...
by Peter Jennings | Nov 14, 2024 | AUKUS
Our relationship with the US is too important to put on hold while we debate Kevin Rudd’s lengthy record of insulting president-elect Donald Trump. Consider the strategic issues we should be discussing with the incoming administration. On defence, how do we deter...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Nov 13, 2024 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Podcasts, Policy
Episode 29: Washington cyber hygiene. Military shr | RSS.com In Episode 29, the Grumpy Strategists answer the call from Australia’s Embassy in Washington. They search for meaning in Defence’s new religious texts – the Strategic Review and Defence...
