by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | May 28, 2026 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Featured, Policy
Strategic Analysis Australia is publishing a baker’s dozen sets of questions on the Defence portfolio that we’d like to know the answers to. Hopefully senators have similar interests and will seek some answers from traditionally reluctant Defence officials. ...
by Michael Shoebridge | May 27, 2026 | AUKUS, Featured, Strategy & Capability
Speaking last week, Defence Minister Richard Marles called the Collins class submarines “Australia’s most important military platform”. So it’s more than disturbing to read the ANAO Audit report on the Defence leadership’s disastrous management of the Collins fleet’s...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | May 26, 2026 | AUKUS, Featured, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
Australia’s Collins subs life extension scandal: 1 | RSS.com Marcus and Michael go through the scandalous revelations about 10 years of failed planning on extending the operational life of the only submarines Australia has – the 6 Collins class –...
by Marcus Hellyer | May 20, 2026 | Defence Budget, Featured, Policy
This post has an embedded version of Marcus Hellyer’s Defence budget Powerpoint slides. The slides tell a disturbing story about Australian military priorities, and the consequences of slowly building a small fleet of expensive warships and nuclear-powered...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | May 18, 2026 | AUKUS, China, Defence Budget, Featured, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
Oz Budgets: the Unhappy meet the Disappointed. Big | RSS.com Michael and Marcus argue furiously over the merits and messages in the Albanese Govt budget versus Opposition leader Angus Taylor’s response. Only one of them is right….Then Marcus burrows deep...
by Marcus Hellyer | May 13, 2026 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Featured, Policy
The 2026-27 Defence Portfolio Budget Statements (PBS) are a very strange document. In fact, we’ve never seen anything quite like it. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is the paradox that in an age of increasing defence budgets, funding actually goes...
by Graeme Dobell | May 12, 2026 | China, Featured, Policy, Reading
The Australia in the Asian Century white paper zoomed across the Canberra policy radar with the appointment of Meghan Quinn as secretary of the Defence Department. Quinn was head of the secretariat that produced the 312-page Asian century report. Seldom has a policy...
by Marcus Hellyer | May 6, 2026 | Defence Budget, Featured, Policy, Strategy & Capability
The Albanese Government has released its second National Defence Strategy (NDS) along with a supporting Defence Integrated Investment Program (IIP). This follows the 2024 version. That was the first in a new approach to defence strategic policy planning which was...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | May 1, 2026 | Featured, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
Zen and the Art of Defence investment: big numbers | RSS.com A Zen temple helps Marcus seek balance between the contradictions in Australia’s defence Strategy, while Michael struggles with a noisy kettle in the bunker. Australia’s new Defence Secretary...
by Michael Shoebridge | Apr 30, 2026 | Policy
Royal Commissioner Virginia Bell faces her first test on Thursday with the reception of her interim report on the horrific Bondi shootings. It’ll have been a rushed effort to get the core information needed to deliver this first report by the April 30 deadline. That’s...
