by Lesley Seebeck | Feb 13, 2024 | Policy
Recent days have covered the apparent—and to insiders, longstanding—differences between the defence minister and his department. First reported in the Australian Financial Review last week, the fractures include a mutual disregard, frustrations over slowness on...
by Michael Shoebridge | Feb 12, 2024 | Defence Budget, Strategy & Capability
The Government has just tabled its ‘Portfolio Additional Estimates Statement’ in the Parliament to provide foundational information for our elected Senators to understand what the Department of Defence is trying to achieve with the $52.6bn of taxpayers’ money it has...
by Marcus Hellyer | Feb 12, 2024 | Defence Budget, Strategy & Capability
The Defence 2023-24 Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements (PAES) were published on Thursday 8 February. The PAES outlines changes to the Defence budget since the Portfolio Budget Statements were released in May 2023. In essences, it is the most current information...
by Marcus Hellyer | Feb 9, 2024 | AUKUS, Strategy & Capability
Will Australia’s AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) program deliver as promised? The unavoidable answer is no. That’s because megaprojects virtually never deliver. That’s the finding of the person who has probably studied more megaprojects than anybody else:...
by Michael Shoebridge | Feb 7, 2024 | Defence Budget, Policy, Strategy & Capability
The Australian Defence Department is broke. That must sound outrageous to almost every other military on the planet – and to pretty much every other part of the Australian Federal bureaucracy who are looking at efficiency dividends and a government obsessing...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Feb 2, 2024 | Defence Budget, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
2024 with a bang: Escalating war with de-escalating words, May budget expectations & broken disposals | RSS.com The Grumpy Strategists look at the escalating conflict in the Middle East, the expectations and pressures the Albanese Government’s reviews and...
by Peter Jennings | Jan 30, 2024 | AUKUS, Strategy & Capability
A second Trump presidency is not a certainty, but a forward-thinking Australian government would start planning for that possibility. Much more is at stake than bonhomie about alliance relations. If Trump trashes the AUKUS partnership on the false grounds that it...
by Anthony Bergin | Jan 25, 2024 | Uncategorized
Foreign Minister Penny Wong is kidding herself. Her warning to Palestinian Authority leaders that our aid must not fund terrorism will have no real effect. Total Australian aid to Palestinians since October 7 last year is $46.5 million. But it’s the announced...
by Peter Jennings | Jan 20, 2024 | Strategy & Capability, Ukraine
There is something deeply suspect about the government’s decision to disassemble and bury 45 MRH-90 Taipan utility helicopters. Attempts to justify the decision have been incomplete, evasive and at times incoherent. What’s at stake is potentially $900m to $1bn of...
by Michael Shoebridge | Jan 20, 2024 | Europe, Strategy & Capability, Ukraine
“Australia stands with Ukraine. We pay tribute to the unwavering resilience and courage displayed by the Ukrainian people.” That’s what prime minister Anthony Albanese says when asked about Australia’s support for Ukraine in its fight against Putin’s invasion. ...
